STOUGHTON, Wis. — A nonprofit aims to help mend the pain of losing a loved one by completing unfinished passion projects left behind.

What You Need To Know

  • The Loose Ends Project pairs unfinished craft projects of passed loved ones with volunteers who will finish them

  • The project has volunteers in all 50 states and over 60 countries.

  • The nonprofits is only accepting fiber arts projects now, but hope to expand to other mediums

It’s called the Loose Ends Project, which works to make sure no craft goes unfinished and every family gets a little more closure. 

Alicia Fritter is a nonprofit volunteer, known as a “finisher.” She’s been crafting since she was a kid and said she loves sewing and cross stitch the most.

“There’s that sense of satisfaction. You get that instant gratification of completion, which is really nice,” she said. “And it’s fun to make things for other people.”

Recently, Fritter completed a cross stitch project for a Wisconsin family after their loved one passed away before finishing the piece.

“It’s really nice to put the time and energy into something for somebody else, even if it’s a stranger,” she said. “It’s still making the world a little bit better.”

The Loose Ends Project was started last year by avid knitters Jen Simonic and Masey Kaplan. 

“One of our friends had lost their mom,” Simonic said. “She had asked us to go through the bag of stuff that you have when a crafter passes away.”

They ended up finishing some of that crafting and realized there was a bigger need for this. Loose Ends now has volunteers in all 50 states and more than 60 different countries around the world.

“What happens is somebody submits through our website,” Simonic said. “Once I get all the information, I start looking in our database and find somebody that’s local and has the talent needed to finish the project.”

Right now, they’re only accepting fiber arts projects such as sewing, cross-stitch and knitting. But Simonic said she hopes to expand the nonprofit to include all different mediums, including artwork.

“A lot of the work that goes that is unfinished is work that is valuable to that person. They’ve put a lot of time and energy into it,” she said.

Simonic said she knows how important it can be to have something handmade by a loved one.

“A lot of our finishers like that,” she said. “That’s their gift that they’re giving to the world.”

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