Stitch by stitch: Volunteer group completes loved ones' unfinished crafts

ST. LOUIS – When a loved one passes away, they leave behind more than memories; they leave unfinished projects. That’s where Loose Ends steps in.

The volunteer organization connects skilled crafters with knitting, sewing, and crochet projects left incomplete due to death or disability. Their mission is to bring comfort to families by completing those handmade items and carrying on someone’s creativity stitch by stitch.

For longtime seamstress George Ann Watson, the mission was right up her alley. Watson, who lives just outside Corydon, Indiana, spent 45 years sewing professionally before dedicating her craft to volunteer work. 

“You always have that memory of them,” Watson said. “They started this for you and it’s really sweet. Anybody that’s ever lost someone that they love knows how special and close to heart a project like this can be. It’s a wonderful thing.”

Watson said she tries to honor each original crafter’s vision exactly as intended.

“Anybody that is a finisher in Loose Ends wants to do the best they can on these projects to have them as close to how the person started them,” she said. “A regular person might get this and they say, oh, this is how this is, but I think I’ll take it a different way. Not with Loose Ends. You do exactly as the loved person would have wanted it.”

Her current project involves knitted blocks that will eventually form a bedspread. She said the project has been more detailed than she had first expected, but said she has always loved challenging herself or “taking on a challenging project that nobody else will touch.”

Loose Ends stays in contact with both finishers and families throughout the process. Every few weeks, they contact the finishers to see how projects are coming along.  

The bedspread Watson’s working on was intended as a gift from a mother to her son, she said.

Watson said that while the technical side of the work can be challenging, it’s the emotional connection that makes the project meaningful. She believes that when you are working on projects like these, there tends to be a connection between herself, and the person who left the project behind. 

“I think whenever you’re working on something that was done before you came along, there is always a connection,” she said. “There is always a feeling of spirit… There’s still an essence of the person in it.”

Watson said that connection drives her and other volunteers to give their best, and helps give her a purpose in her own life. 

“There is more joy in being able to do something for someone else with no strings attached,” she said. “It gives us a purpose, you know, on Earth, a reason to be here. And at 70 years old, it’s nice to have a reason to still be here.”

Watson hopes more people will learn about the organization and submit unfinished projects.

“Loose Ends is doing a beautiful thing,” she said. “They are fulfilling a need that is really there, but they need more people to know about it. And they need more people to be aware that they are there. And if you have a project, submit it to Loose Ends and see if they can’t get somebody to finish it for you.”