Shannon Downey likes craft projects and she also frequents estate sales near her home in Chicago. When she’s at a sale and sees small, unfinished craft projects in a home, often embroidery, she will buy it just to finish it and then donate it somewhere.
“There’s no way that soul is resting with an unfinished project left behind,” Downey, 41, wrote on Twitter.
She said it’s a personal code she lives by, and hopes that when she dies, someone will collect any of her unfinished crafting projects and complete them.
So when Downey was at an estate sale last month in the home of a woman who died at age 99, and came across a large plastic bin with an enormous, unfinished embroidery and quilting project that was of a United States map, she sat on the floor and almost cried.
“I knew I had to buy it and finish it,” she said, adding that it would be a huge undertaking and she doesn’t know how to quilt.
The project, which was already begun and had been carefully laid out in the fabric bin, entails embroidering a piece of fabric for each of the 50 states, and 50 separate stars, then turning them into a quilt. The original crafter who started the project was Rita Smith, who died in August at age 99, Downey said.
"I go estate sale shopping regularly and whenever I find an unfinished embroidery project I buy it and finish it bc there’s no way that soul is resting with an unfinished project left behind. One day I found this stunner for $5. The I walked into the bedroom and found a box full of fabric. I opened it up and discovered it was a massive quilting project that was just begun. Every bit of the project mapped out and in this plastic tub. I sat on the floor and almost
cried bc I knew I had to buy it and finish it...READ MORE
