Year in Review 2025

2025, we came in at full swing, with a little funding, some returning community members and some new friends, we are expanding our web of relations.   We are in our seventh year as a collective and it feels like we have developed a sustainable modus operandi- some work, some play, some admin and some hands on, some creation and some repair.   Here are some photo highlights season to season from the year that was.

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images (from left to right, top to bottom, more or less):  #WOCAR2024 poster for winter swap and needle felting repair workshop, plus images of workshop in action: Marnie demoing darning, a patch, poster for repair series in Hamilton
second row: wide of felting workshop with Allie leading, Shams and Leah in back, IG post from our host Mehtap from At Origin Coffee, fortune about friends, Ursa crocheted flower experiments
third row ish: Tanya and green cookbook author Puneeta Chittwal-Varma at CityTv appearance; WOCAR coiling workshop poster, Lora leading workshop
fourth row: participant learning machine sewing at pillow workshop; poster for pillow workshop; participant and Gabrie making pillows; bunting making poster
firth row; WiP team post workshop (Jennifer, Lora, Leah, Leslie, Ursa and Tanya)Shams giving land acknowledgement at the Heliconian Club, Leah and Tanya making bunting, bunting outside the club. 

December to February: Winter of Care and Repair 2024

We spent the winter hosting a series of neighbourhood repair and upcycling workshops, as part of a project called Winter of Care and Repair 2024 or #WOCAR2024 inspired by textile artist Jeanne Wigger aka @thepeoplesmending and supported by a Neighbourhood Climate Action Grant from the City of Toronto and LiveGreenTO.  The mandate was to bring repair and upcycling skills to our neighbourhood in midtown Toronto, so we hosted swaps and workshops in local coffee shops, libraries and churches, as well as ran a bunting workshop in Yorkville with the Heliconian Club (part of WiP artist Tanya Murdoch's residency in 2024-2025) the workshops were: December 2024 Needle felting/cozy repairs and winter swap, (lead by textile artist Allie Davies, with support from Leah, Tanya, Marnie and Shams ) then coiling and household linens swap (lead by Lora Bertolo at the Northern district library, with support from Ursa, Shams, Leah and Tanya) then pillow making and makers swap in February, lead by Leslie Solomonian with support from Marnie, Gabrie, Tanya and Leah.  ​

images (from left to right, top to bottom, more or less): Clothing Swap at Glebe Road United Church with partner posters,; Tanya and Shams, Ruo with new shirt; new repair expert Keira examining dionatted wedding dress with Marnie and Shams
Puneeta, Tanya, Maria and Lora posing at swap, Lora happy to get Leah's coat, repair advice table in full swing.
Third row: spring tulips; good vibes poster hand spun yarn from Sakiya at OcadU's GRADEX; up; group show from below(below) of Leslie, Tanya and Ursa; new neighbourhood volunteer Vale helping at the market, Keira and Shams looking cool
Fourth row (top) tanya at Artbattle (below) Leah prints in Manila art show, Leah making art in the Philippines; Shams with #folkdrekt outfit for Norwegian Day parade. 

March to Mar 2025: swaps and festivals

We host our fifth? annual neighbour-to-neighbour Clothing swap and Repair/upcycling advice event with our neighbourhood partners Glebe Road United Church.  With the WOCAR2024 project NCAG grant we have some more hangers and we still use the shed on their grounds to store textiles and supplies.  This year we partnered with some neighbourhood initiatives: local author and chef Puneeta, the Prom Project and Zippaport, as well as had a VERY active maker's exchange.   
Just before the swap, Shams suffered from a severe health scare, but recovered by mid March, and joined the swap and also the 3rd annual Ring in the Spring community fair in June Rowlands park, hosted by Appletree TO.  Works-in-Progress hosted a plant exchange, repair advice booth and sold goods made by WiP members and neighbourhood makers. Keira, Shams, Vale, Ruo, Tanya, Ursa and Leslie all helped out. 
It was a busy fall for individual projects as well: Tanya was painting for a solo show and took part in Art battle, Leah was in the Philippines building a home (maybe future retreat site?) and making art; Marnie's daughter Safiya was selling goods at the OCADU GRADEX and Shams made a Norwegian traditional outfit to march in the Norwegian Day parade.

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images (from left to right, top to bottom, more or less):   first row left images from the Heliconian Hall with bunting on display at Tanya's solo show; prepping cloth for flower pounding, then flower pounding/bunting making with Humber River pals (wide, MK at work
second row: bunting with artwork at Tanya's show, Ursa working on beadsed medallian for brother's grad; bunting tat Solstice party; Shams at machine with our host at Humber River.
Third Row: Tanya, Leona and Leah on retreat in Muskoka, natural dye experiemnt, Ursa earring, MK natural dye workshop ad, more flower pounding
fourth row: pollinator; work in progress from retreat (gelliprinting x 2 ) Leona and Leah outside at retreat, denim feather..

June to August: summer artmaking, life transitions, play and renewal

There was the usual travel/family/fun issues with scheduling, but we did come together for a workshop with the Humber River Pals in July and a retreat in August.  Last year we traveled to Vermont, but this year, with health concerns for some members we had a less ambitious outing in Ontario, but still met local artists and did art experiments with the three who came- as well as a lot of swimming.

The bunting from the February workshop was on full display at Tanya's solo show at the Heilconian Club as her Artist-in-Residency year came to a close, and is used as sustainable decorations for all art openings and other events at the club from now on.  There were also graduations from members and their kids, and bunting worthy parties at home.

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Vojna images (from left to right, top to bottom, more or less):  Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre (ext), site of our collaboration with Repair Cafe; Leah and participant sewing T-shirt bag, natural dye experiments x2, t-shirt bag with applique
second row: participants making T-shirt bags, kids stuffing pillows; the Make + Mend Repair cafe team (Liz from repair cafe, Leah, Kiera, Talina, Ursa, Tanya, volunteer and Natalija (our climate action hero + collaborator; CN tower
Third row: Thorncliffe Park Urban Farmers harvest; Marina, local textile hero donating stash to WiP; second Make and Mend event at Glebe Rd church, part of their open house; Leah, Tanya, Leslie and Shams wearing Leah's T-shirt creations- go team! care and repair on our sign; rescued textiles from factory in Toronto
Fourth + Fifth  row: Leah workshop series at YWCA shelter (WiP a guest for 3 sessions): Leah with participant, happy sewers; then Ursa and Otis at the Make+Mend market (top) and reusable wrap (bottom) "Care + Rep[air" T-shirts;  then (from top to bottom far right) Tanya, Jiyoon and Leah at recycled holiday craft workshop; ext Moss Park Market, Jiyoon holding up decoration.  

September to December: playing together at Make +Mend workshops and markets

We were making connections and finding new pools to play in this past fall​.  We were approached back at one of the winter workshops to support a grant applicant for a Make and Mend event; Natalija Voljno (Our Future First ) applied for a Climate Action Champions Grant from the City of Toronto and Live green TO to support a collaboration with the Repair Cafe at the Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre in September (our sponsors for the NCAG)  We made T-shirts and assisted in repairs while the Repair cafe volunteers offered repair advice for textiles, bikes and small appliance repair.  We also brought in a lot of pillows and scraps for participants to stuff and bring home, rehousing weird textiles.  We hope to repeat this partnership in the Spring!

We also connected with some other local neighbourhood eco heroes and makers, including Thorncliffe Park Urban Farmers and a local maker, Mariana, who gave us her stash when she moved.  We have used the fabric for many events over the fall, including sewing workshops run by MK with the City, a series of workshops with a YWCA shelter lead by WiP artist Leah, and a holiday craft workshop with Moss Park Market in December.  Works-in-Progress had a presence at TWO fall events at Glebe Road as well: a Make and Mend AND Market, where Leah made T-shirts, and a maker's market in December. 

Works-in-Progress member Shams el-Din Rogers joined the Textile of Museum of Canada board and in October, she was announced as the new Chair of the board as the museum reopened; she is still a collective member but will join us strictly as a volunteer to avoid conflicts.

We are applying for more grants to support projects in 2026, with some of these artists, friends and community partners we have worked with this year.