Eight years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child, Victoria, my husband bought me a sewing machine for Christmas. Both of my grandmothers were great seamstresses, but I had never taken the time to learn myself. I have many memories of them making things for me and also for my dolls. So, as a new stay-at-home mom, I wanted to learn. After getting my sewing machine, my mom and I purchased a lot of cute fleece and cute ribbons to make taggies (if you don't know what a taggie is, google it). My mom, my sister-in-laws, and I made taggies for our babies and for our friends' babies. The taggies were super cute, but once our kids started getting older, we didn't have time to sew, and all the materials got stored away.
I ran across that tub of fleece in my garage awhile back and thought it would be a great idea to create a home-based business making taggies to bring in some extra income. My friend, Nitzia, who has her own sewing business gave me some pointers, but then I learned that taggie has a strict patent. I realized that if I was going to use that fleece to make taggies, then they could only be gifts or I could donate them. That is when the lightbulb went off and God began to give me the vision for this ministry. Wouldn't it be great to get ladies from the church together to sew and spend time together with a common goal of producing pieces to be donated to people who are in need?
After several months of throwing that idea around in my head, I sent an email out to my Sunday school class to see if anybody else would be interested in being apart. My friend, Nitzia (who had given me some pointers before and even allowed me to help her with her booth at a craft show), immediately emailed me back. And the coolest thing was that I could tell that she was just as excited about this as I was. She commented that this was something that she had been wanting to do for quite some time. I just knew that God had called us both to this.....we became a team with a common goal.
We began talking about specifics and what the ministry would look like and where we felt like God was leading us. We began researching needs and possible people and places to help. Before we had even advertised the ministry, a lady who knew that Nitzia sewed came up to her at church and told her that she had tons of fabric that she would like to donate to Nitzia if she had anything that she could do with it!! Isn't that amazing??!! God is always faithful. Someone else also donated money, so that we were able to purchase some other supplies that we needed. We talked to the women's director at our church and she was very supportive. So, a lot of background info to say that: this past Saturday was our first meeting!!!!
We had eight ladies that got to come and partcipicate in the first work day! Since it was Memorial Day weekend, there were several more that wanted to be a part, but were either out of town or with family.
Here are some pictures of our time together:
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| Ashley measuring and cutting fleece for one of the blankets that will be given to a child who lives at the orphanage in Peru. |
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| Nitzia helping Mary Katherine cut fabric for one of the pillows that will be donated to Arkansas Children's Hospital. |
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| Pam cutting fabric for a pillow. She didn't last long on this and decided she preferred to stuff the pillows with the batting. Ha! |
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| Nitzia helping Erica measure more fleece for the blankets. |
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| Pam cutting fabric. She is so much fun, I smile just looking at this picture. |
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| Our faithful seamstresses: Kacey and Sue (or Granny Sue, as she says she prefers to be called) |
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| There's Pam, stuffing away!!! |
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| Sweet ladies posing for a picture. |
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| Erica cutting fringe around a finished blanket. |
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| Ellen and Nitzia |
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| Yeah!!!! This is documentation of the first finished blanket. |
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| Here's the whole crew from Saturday!! We were able to complete eight fleece blankets and ten pillows during our time together. Plus we had tons of fun doing it! |
Sewing the Seed:
Our mission statement: Sewing the Seed is a mission opportunity for ladies in the church to spend time together sewing and creating things to donate to children who are in need. The purpose is to meet a child's needs with tangible love and comfort, so that they might experience and know the ultimate love and comfort that only God can give. The possible projects that can be completed through this ministry are endless. We want to reach children in foster care, orphanages, extended hospital stays, poorer nations.
Our mission verses: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
Our prayer is that through our sewing, we will be planting and sowing seeds in people that will someday result in their salvation. Each piece that is donated will have a tag attached that will include our logo and a note explaining that the piece was handmade by someone who cares and that the recipient has been prayed for specifically.
I thought the day went perfect. There was a lot of working, but also a lot of laughing and enjoying each other's company. It was fun working together towards a common goal. I loved seeing how these women have a heart for missions just as much as Nitzia and I do. I also love that the group ranges in age and as the group hopefully continues to grow, I look forward to getting to know more ladies that I would otherwise not get to spend a lot of time with. And God is being faithful with providing supplies and bringing different projects to our attention. Right now we are working on finishing enough fleece blankets for every child at the orphanage in Peru and the pillows to be donated to AR children's hosptial, but there are already other projects that we are looking to work on in the future.
We are just normal women, but because of our obedience, God can do some extraordinary things through us. Can't wait to see what He has planned!
