Making starblankets helped this First Nations quilter break through her social anxiety
Joni Fraser found healing in quilting, and now is teaching others to do the same
With intense concentration and focus, Joni Fraser hunches over her sewing machine, creating an intricate starblanket pattern with vibrant designs.
The quilter from Pasqua First Nation, 60 kilometres northeast of Regina, fills orders for the blankets from across Canada and the United States.
However, when she started in 2018, she wasn't as confident in her skills as she is now — nor as confident in herself.
"I did struggle with anxiety … there was a point in my life [where] I didn't want to come out of my room," she recalled.
Making starblankets — and sharing that work with others — has been life-changing, she says.
"It helped me pull myself out of that self-doubt to have these people believe in me, believe in my work, encourage me each and every time to share my work and just tell me to keep going," she said. "They help me heal that part of me that was so self-doubting."
While there weren't many online resources to turn to, she says, she found enough to get started on her first blanket: a baby blanket for one of her nieces. When it was complete, she says, it was 76 centimetres wide. "It was a really tiny blanket," she said with a chuckle.
She posted a picture of it online and got some positive feedback. People were telling her to keep going, so she started another one for her daughter, which took her roughly a year to finish.
Her first blankets didn't lie flat, were small or had crooked edges, she says, but as she got progressively better she bought a good sewing machine, and set up a space in her house where she crafts the blankets.
She likes to pick out colours, and let her creativity shine through: "I like how they come out different each time and just learning, trying to better my craft each and every time," she said.
She used to get scared at the thought of being on camera, or talking to people in general.
However, after four years of posting her work on Facebook, she decided to challenge herself and go live, and again got a positive response from her followers.
That prompted her to join TikTok, which is where she said she got an overwhelming amount of support from people all over the world " She now has more than 1,600 followers on that platform "and so that helped a lot."
A gift for every occasion
Creating starblankets isn't just something Fraser does for herself, but is a gift she can offer people at the best and worst moments of their life. She creates blankets for parents excited for their new baby, or for people to gift to doctors who are leaving the community, or for funerals.
"They don't have to worry about trying to find a starblanket for their loved one, and [it can] just help them with their journey home," she said.
A couple years before her father passed away, Fraser says, the family took a trip to Edmonton, stopping at an Indigenous store in the city.
He went inside and bought them each a blanket to thank them for paying for the trip.
"He said it's one of the things we do," she said, explaining blankets are given to honour and thank people.
She says she thinks of his teaching when she makes her blankets, and feels it is a way she is honouring others.
Now she wants to share that gift with others by teaching them to do the same for themselves.
"It is always my intention to help, and to want to teach others because it can be healing," she said.
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