BANGOR – Tilly Crowell, 85, of Bangor hasn’t kept track of the number of handcrafted, fabric-covered wastebaskets she has made the last 12 years, but she estimates she has produced 80 a year.

“Things have been a little slow this year,” she said. “I’m not sure why.”

She came up with the idea for the wastebaskets when she was looking for something do at home to supplement her income.

“I don’t like to sew by machine,” she said. “I do it all by hand.”

To create the wastebaskets, Crowell uses a trapunto technique, which calls for the padding of selected fabric motifs that are backed with another fabric, and outlined with stitching. The backing is slit, the motif is padded, then the slit is sewn closed. After the padding has been done, the work is adhered to the wastebasket. The final step is to embellish the wastebaskets with braid trim.

In general, Crowell uses fabric panels printed with cat, fox, bear, Harry Potter, deer, moose, duck, bird, dog and horse motifs, or whatever appeals to her sense of color and design.

“But I have trouble getting the fabric I want,” she said, because local fabric stores don’t carry it, or because manufacturers no longer produce it.

She uses cotton fabrics for the most part, but has had calls for crushed velvet. She said she often finds pretty drapery fabrics that serve her purpose well.

Recently, when Crowell went to Marden’s searching for fabric panels, a clerk asked her if she’d be interested in a NASCAR motif.

“I said, ‘NASCAR? What’s that?'” she said. “Now I even watch the NASCAR races [on television].” She said she wished manufacturers would make a panel featuring Ricky Craven.

Crowell, who grew up in Carmel with six sisters and two brothers, said sewing never appealed to her all that much, but cooking did. She worked at Frank’s Bakery from 1970 to 1973.

“I loved that job,” she said.

And for 10 or 12 years, she cooked for a local family.

“I still have recipes that I’ll probably never try, I have so many,” she said. Yeast rolls are one of her specialties.

Every Tuesday, Crowell goes to the Hammond Street Senior Center at 2 Hammond St., where she plays Scrabble and bridge.

“I stay all day,” she said.

Crowell continued to make the wastebaskets after she lost the vision in one eye to macular degeneration. She said she has an Ott-Lite, full-spectrum lighting that makes it possible for her to keep sewing.

“I’m going to do it as long as I can,” she said.

Crowell sells her wastebaskets at the senior center’s gift shop. To learn more, call the center at 262-5532.