Meet Ashley Yau

We recently connected with Ashley Yau and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
Keeping my creativity alive is a constant process. Sometimes, I get really focused on the administration work of ReTextile. While this is important, it can sometimes cause me to forget that quilting is also my hobby, which I initially picked up for fun.

When I start feeling bogged down with administration, I love to work on a quilt. Sometimes I work on a quilt for ReTextile, or a personal quilt, and I have found the actual act of making a quilt brings back the creativity and joy I first found in the craft.

I also love quilting with others, and quilting in community has sparked countless conversations that have inspired me personally, professionally, and creatively.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
ReTextile is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that uses fabric that was going to be thrown away to make quilts for human trafficking victims in Texas.

ReTextile is unique in three ways:

First, we solely focus on providing comfort to human trafficking victims, which is a large, yet highly overlooked population in Texas.

Second, we make the quilts primarily out of fabric that was going to be thrown away or sitting unused. It’s a big part of the culture among quilters to buy fabric just for the fun of it. While I’m never opposed to some retail therapy, ReTextile puts fabric that isn’t being used to a good cause.

Third, we work to involve Gen-Z in our quilting process. A lot of the quilting industry is focused on older generations, but as a Gen-Z quilter myself, I believe there is untapped creative potential in Gen-Z when it comes to quilting and other fiber arts.

With the help of a youth liaison, ReTextile hosts fabric-cutting events where high school students help prepare quilt kits. Students also write handwritten notes to the trafficking survivors who receive our quilts.

I am excited for what the future holds as my youth liaison and I are working to continue expanding our high school volunteer offerings.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
ReTextile has five core values: creativity, compassion, community, intentionality, and investment in the future.

Those first three: creativity, compassion, and community especially resonate with me. My creative outlet (quilting), and compassion for those who have experienced trafficking motivated me to start ReTextile. Most importantly, my love for community has helped me connect with many amazing people: quilters, anti-human trafficking advocates, students, and more, who make ReTextile possible.

One of the best things you can do to improve these traits is to genuinely connect with people. Listen to their stories, empathize, and learn from them.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
Absolutely!

ReTextile is always looking for volunteers who know how to sew or quilt.

We especially encourage beginners to help us achieve our mission. A big misconception about quilting is that it is a difficult process. While some quilts require years of sewing experience, many quilts only require you to know how to sew a straight line.

ReTextile works to make the process even easier by providing pre-cut fabric with easy-to-follow steps to make these quilts as beginner-friendly as possible.

So if you, or anyone you know, is looking for a volunteering project, we’d love for you to contact us at retextilequilts@gmail.com, or visit our website: retextile.org to request a quilt kit.

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