Mary Spring and Terri Howell are retired elementary school teachers from Muskoka. For six years, they have taught hundreds of children to sew using grants through the District of Muskoka’s Pay It Forward Program.
Spring and Howell, along with friends and volunteers, provide sewing instruction and fun on PD days for students for free. They also use the sewing machines to host creative sewing days for adults in the community, at no charge to participants. The name of their program is Sewing Camp.
Once again and for the sixth year in a row, Howell and Spring are thankful to be in receipt of a Pay It Forward grant from the District of Muskoka.
The goals for the Pay it Forward grants are to:
- Support a healthy, vibrant community
- Build community capacity and leadership
- Foster volunteerism and encourage community engagement
- Creatively problem-solve to fill a community need
Their work started in 2017, recognizing a need in the community to take children away from computers and provide them with affordable art instruction, differentiated learning, fostering a love of the Canadian landscape, and in response to the “ Maker Movement,” Spring and Howell asked the District of Muskoka for money to purchase seven sewing machines and fabrics. Initially, the grant was specifically targeted at 10-14-year-old rural children.
Today, they service all of Muskoka with workshops held in Dwight, Huntsville, Bracebridge, Port Sydney, and Bala as well as other communities. They have also assisted schools with their Winter Electives programs.
Spring and Howell teach participants the basic use of a sewing machine, look at some art pieces for the design process and then discuss the elements of design (line, form, texture, colour, shape, etc.) and encourage students to put their creative skills to work on a Canadian landscape made from fabric.
Throughout COVID, they held Zoom workshops and initiated projects that people could complete at home. Spring notes that The Isolation During COVID-19 Quilt is on display at the Algonquin Theatre beside the quilt that was designed by community members for Canada’s 150th birthday celebration.
Sewing machines were also used for the Flood Relief Quilts that were designed by community members when the town of Merritt BC was severely affected by flooding in November of 2022. Fifty quilts were sent out to a school in Merritt BC for children who had lost their homes. Lessons were provided to volunteers on Zoom and a local trucking company delivered the quilts at no cost.
In the spring of 2022, the sewing machines were lent to Huntsville Public School so that the Grade 7/8 students could sew “moon kits” to raise funds for menstrual awareness.
Spring and Howell have partnered with the Huntsville Festival of the Arts as well as the Huntsville Public Library to continue with their Sewing Camp. They will be at Nuit Blanche North this weekend with their installation. The title of their project is From Chaos to Order Through Collaborative Efforts. “Our aim is to take the chaos out of swaths of fabric and through working collaboratively, turn it into an orderly piece of abstract art,” said Spring. “Since the pandemic, our world has seemed chaotic. Can we bring order to chaos? Quilting is all about creating order. Participants will choose and cut small pieces of fabric from the table and sew them together using the sewing machines provided. You may choose to keep your creation or you may donate it to us to make a larger quilt at a later time.”
Howell and Spring are looking for volunteers. “If you know how to use a sewing machine, we need you,” said Spring.
Please get in touch with either one of them, Nuit Blanche runs from 8 pm until midnight, but any time would be helpful. You can email [email protected] or forestbella12@don-clement
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