One Common Thread

 Hello friends, 

This week I wanted to share a story about an organization that is doing a wonderful thing: Allowing women to work from home to make enough money to support their families. 

The women I am talking about live in Honduras, in terribly poor conditions. It is just heartbreaking to see their "houses" and living conditions and makes me realize how lucky I am, living with a roof over my head, running water, and heat. 

Enter 2 sisters, who took it upon themselves to help these women by starting One Common Thread. One of those sisters, Courtney, moved with her husband and 6 of their children to San Pedro Sula , one of the most dangerous cities in Honduras. She writes that for the first year the family lived there, they pretty much  stayed in their apartment , and only had interactions with people from their church. Some members of their church lived right next to their apartment in a slum or Bordo, and Courtney soon realized that she had a lot in common with the women in this Bordo: They loved their children, they wanted the best for them, and they wanted them to be safe. So Courtney started visiting these women and their families in their homes, helping them clean, and buying them beds and other essentials. 

She felt good helping them, but also worried who was going to help them once she and her family returned to the USA. Then she was approached by one of the girls from the Bordo who wished to go on a church trip but needed to come up with the 10 dollar cost ( that is 3 days wages in Honduras!). Courtney has just started making a hexi flower quilt for her daughter's wedding and thought maybe Skarleth could help make hexies. After a quick tutorial she sent Skarleth on her way and was so impressed by Skarleth's workmanship that she paid her double the agreed upon price. Skarleth was thrilled, and then Skarleth's mom asked Courtney if she had any sewing for her. Soon word spread about the “Gringa” who was providing work for some of the women in the Bordo. The next time she arrived with more material, she had five more women asking to participate. Courtney found herself managing up to fifteen women at a time. 

So she called her sister Kym in the USA. Kym helped to provide the financing to keep the women working, while they found a way to expand this business and provide a more sustainable source of income. Kym’s background in corporate marketing and promotion helped them to develop a quilt kit to sell these one-of-a-kind quilts to others looking to speed up their own quilting.  And so A Common Thread was born! 

I was so touched by this story and by the plight that these women face on a daily basis that I wanted to do my little part in helping fellow human beings by buying a hexie quilt kit and sharing about this organization in this blog post.

If you are moved to help these women and this organization, there are several ways in which you can do so. You can obviously donate money with which much needed supplies can be bought. You can also donate fabric so that more hexies can be made. You can order a hexie kit and make your very own quilt, and lastly, you can order a completed quilt. 

Recently I bought a hexie kit. It arrived in this great bag to keep everything together. 

  

 Do you see that gingham? And the  polka dotted fabric? So cute!   These will just make the cutest hexie flowers, don't you think?

I love having handwork to do in the evenings so this will be a great project! And my hexies are flannel so as my quilt grows it will keep me nice and warm too ;).  By the way, the purchase of one quilt kit provides income for one MONTH for one of their makers!

I thought I could share some photos of the completed quilts, as well as quilt kits available for purchase, in case you would like to contribute in that way: 

With Covid restrictions some women in the USA are currently making the hexie kits, but all money still goes to support these women in Honduras. If you would like to find out  more information or have any questions, please go here: One Common Thread.

And I would like to thank Courtney for providing me with some of the details behind the story, and for allowing me to use any and all images from their social media sites in this post!

Until next time~ happy creating!

Monique