Participating in the Winter of Care and Repair Challenge, held from the Winter Solstice to the Spring Equinox, makes me mindful of taking time to extend the life of textiles, home goods, garments, and other useful items. It also makes me keenly aware of upcycling and recycling efforts, keeping things out of landfills, and minimizing unnecessary waste.
 |
| The toe of one sock mended with a wool mending thread. |
How I fared with the Challenge
This Challenge started last December and ended this month on March 20, the Spring Equinox. My pledge for the 2024 - 2025 included textile mends and repairs, upcycling and repurposing, organizing my fabric stash, using scraps (rather than tossing them), and office tidying.
 |
| The zipper seam in a pillowcase |
 |
| Mended zipper seam. |
Textile mending
This winter, I did manage to mend a few garments and household textiles:
- mending a hole in a pair of socks,
- repairing the zipper seam of a pillowcase,
- reinforcing seams in pants and shorts,
- mending several worn or torn patches in a vintage quilt.
 |
| Holes and shredded areas of a vintage quilt. |
 |
| Appliquéd patches over the worn areas. |
Upcycling/recycling
I upcycled/recycled old paper sales materials and paper catalogs into two Junk Journals. I gifted one to my cousin and used the other in this year’s Junk Journal January Challenge. I continue to use my junk journal for slow drawing, watercolor play, and hand lettering.
 |
| Junk Journal made with recycled papers. |
Here is a flip-through of one of the junk journals.
Fabric scraps
I didn’t get much fabric stash organizing done, but did complete 4 scrappy kitty quilts in December and donated an additional 16 kitty quilts to two local animal hospitals at the end of February. The quilts were made of orphan quilt blocks [a repurposing effort], discontinued fabric samples, fabric scraps, and the bindings were pieced and scrappy as well.
 |
| Scrappy quilt tops for charity quilts. |
Two additional kitty quilts went to our gang of outside tuxedo kitties—to care for the fuzzy ones at our house.
 |
| Scrappy quilt bindings. |
I’m also using fabric bits and scraps from various improv quilting projects in this year’s 100 Day Project, the 2025 Stitch Book with Ann Wood. Here is one of the pages.
 |
| A page from my 2025 Stitch Book using fabric scraps. |
Office tidying
The response to this goal wasn’t as prolific as I had hoped for the home office, but I did do a a clean-up of my “mobile office” (my car). The vacuuming efforts in the back where my sample suitcases go, and the carpets in the front seats were welcome sights!
Care and Repair take-aways
Jeanna, from The People’s Mending [@thepeoplesmending], is the creator of the Winter of Care and Repair challenge. She wrote a synopsis of her 5-year experience and posted a list of take-aways. The ones I resonate most with are:
- It’s going to take less time than you think.
- It’s going to take more time than you think.
- If it’s worth repairing, it’s worth repairing right… even if you have to redo it.
- Repairing is caring.
- To speed up, slow down. Or, “the hurried-er I go, the behind-er I get.”
- Practice makes better: the more you do, the more you learn, the better you get.
- You can do anything, but not everything, and that’s OK.
I try to remember to give myself the grace to do what I can. Because all the small acts do add up.
