Prudence Island artist transforms tattered textiles into beautiful rugs for charity

PORTSMOUTH – Kim Dylewicz lives on Prudence Island now, but she learned how to make rugs in western Massachusetts, and she became passionate about fighting food insecurity while living in Ethiopia.

Dylewicz, who works full time for a hospital, started On the Fence Rugs after her daughter moved out. She was living in western Massachusetts, and decided it was just outrageous to pay $100 for a throw rug. She read articles, watched YouTube videos, and learned from others who already made rugs before zeroing in on the perfect material for her first attempt: her daughter’s old Barney the Dinosaur sheets.

She decided her daughter, who had already graduated college, would never be using the twin-size Barney sheets again, and then the wheels started turning – she spread the word among her friends that she was collecting old cotton sheets. One of those friends happened to be running a survival center and food pantry in western Massachusetts, and she decided to keep making rugs and donating the proceeds to the survival center.

“When we moved to Prudence Island, I really wanted to support a local charity and food insecurity is really important to me,” Dylewicz told The Daily News. “I found out about the East Bay Food Pantry and Thrift Shop, and when I went there, there were sheets.”

She started buying old sheets from the East Bay Food Pantry thrift shop, as well as soliciting her neighbors on Prudence Island for any sheets they might be getting rid of, and saw the situation as an all-around win: she was engaging in her creative hobby, using the washable used sheets was keeping material out of landfills, and the East Bay Food Pantry was doubly benefiting because she was buying sheets from the Thrift Shop to make her rugs and then donating 100% of her proceeds from the rugs back to the pantry.

RI nonprofit salaries:Just how much do RI's nonprofit leaders make? Here's what we found.

Dylewicz has no idea how many rugs she has made, or how much money she has donated to the pantry over the years; she does it because she likes to do it, usually while listening to books on tape, and she does it because it is important for her to contribute to the community. She said a circular rug takes her about 19 hours to make.

“I absolutely love it,” she said. “I love that I get to play with texture and design, and I love that at the end it is going to be something that is used, and not just something that will get thrown out again.”

She sells circular rugs for $50, and rectangular ones for $25. All of the rugs pictured in this article are currently available for purchase at the On the Fence Rugs Facebook page, but interested parties should act quickly – they are quite popular, and Dylewicz said she has sold “tons” of rugs not only to her neighbors but also to customers as far away as Seattle, Washington.

Dining out:Lower Thames Street food scene has changed since 2020. A look at what's come and gone

This winter, Dylewicz branched out from cotton sheets and started using wool to make garlands. She asked the food pantry to set aside any donated wool items which could not be sold in the thrift shop, like sweaters with holes in them, and started experimenting with her new material.

“I’m a real believer in ‘think globally, act locally,’" Dylewicz said. "You don’t have to be super wealthy to make a difference locally…whether you’re volunteering at a food pantry, or shopping at a thrift shop where the proceeds benefit others, think about what you can do at a local level, because if we take care of each other locally, we are making a difference. When we watch what’s going on in the world, it can feel very overwhelming, or like it’s too big, so make it local; volunteer to read at a school, donate your books to the library; try and help where you are if you can.”

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: On the Fence Rugs supports East Bay Food Pantry with recycled art