35,000 Volunteers Finish Crafts for Families in Grief

Michelle Rudy found an unfinished sock monkey her late mother had started sewing years ago and knew exactly who should have it. Her three-year-old nephew Benny never got to meet his grandmother, and Rudy wanted him to hold something his grandma had made with love.

There was just one problem. Rudy didn't know how to sew.

She turned to Loose Ends, a nonprofit that matches unfinished craft projects with volunteer "finishers" who complete them after someone dies or becomes too ill to continue. The organization started in 2023 when two knitters, Masey Kaplan and Jennifer Simonic, noticed friends kept asking them to finish projects left behind by deceased loved ones.

The idea spread fast. Loose Ends now has more than 35,000 volunteers across 84 countries who can tackle everything from half-finished sweaters to elaborate needlepoint to quilts barely begun.

So far, they've completed about 4,500 projects. The volunteers don't just finish crafts, they help families heal.

Nancy Olson, a retired nurse and sewing enthusiast in Connecticut, took on Rudy's sock monkey. The two women grew up just miles apart and even sent their kids to the same schools.

Olson asked Rudy to describe her mother's artistic style, her love of fabric and color, her quilting passion. Then Olson got to work, using bright, whimsical fabrics she thought would delight a small child.

"I felt like I was honoring a generation of crafters and creators that hopefully isn't dying out," Olson says. She even used fabrics from her own stash that she'd inherited from other crafters, connecting generations of makers.

Rudy had previously finished a needlepoint project for someone else through Loose Ends. But she worries she won't get matched again because there are now about 10 volunteers for every submitted project.

The Ripple Effect

That volunteer surplus tells its own hopeful story. Thousands of crafters want to help strangers finish what grief left incomplete.

Olson thinks many families struggle to submit projects because handling a loved one's unfinished work brings up too much emotion. Trusting someone else with something so personal can feel overwhelming.

But for Rudy, taking that risk paid off. Her nephew Benny loved his grandmother's sock monkey, and a painful reminder became a treasured connection to the grandmother he never met.