Recycling provides therapy

Women create fibre art for local thrift store

May 3, 2016 | Web First
Emily Summach | Saskatchewan correspondent
Rosthern, Sask.

Calling themselves the Basket Cases, a small group of women meets monthly for a fibre arts challenge at The Clothes Basket, a Mennonite Central Committee thrift store in Rosthern, Sask.

Group members are quilters or crafters who enjoy working with fabric. While they are encouraged to recycle materials from the store, they are also welcome to include items from their own personal stash. Completed projects are sold in the store, unless members wish to keep them. Store manager Dianne Epp estimates the projects have garnered more than $200 in sales since the Basket Cases formed in 2013.

Each month the women choose a theme on which to base their challenge. Themes may be based on the seasons or nature. One month saw members crafting items with a winter theme; another time, the chosen theme was a river.

Occasionally, themes are prompted by thrift store donations. When the store received a large bag full of gathered fabric circles, known to quilters as yo-yos, members challenged one another to use them up. They found items in the store that they could adorn with the fabric yo-yos, adding a splash of colour to hair bands, handbags, T-shirts and even a window valance.

For the month of March, members were to use upholstery fabric in their creations. Coasters, pencil holders, handbags, framed pictures and wall hangings were among the finished projects brought to the meeting.

Citing April Yamasaki’s book, Spark: Igniting Your God-Given Creativity, Dolores Friesen says, “The more you use [creativity], the more you have.”

And the creativity of these women has been known to inspire others as well. A project featuring crazy quilting with lace and pieces of hand embroidery was once on display in the store. A customer who saw it decided to make a crazy quilt of her own.

“She purchased every piece of lace and hand embroidery we had in the store,” says Epp.

Members enjoy the creative challenge and the monthly get-together. Referring to the group’s quirky name, Jessie Dueck says, “It’s a therapy thing.”

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