I can’t even begin to tell you how mind-blowing it has to been to watch my little idea to garner help in making handmade clothes/gifts for our orphan friends in Tam Ky grow incredibly over the past two weeks.

I knew there were folks out there that I knew and admired who would help along the way, but I never expected the outpouring of offers to sew up a bag or dresses or a stack of receiving blankets or sling bags. It’s been amazing and I am incredibly grateful.

We’ve been lucky enough to have some friends from the fabric industry step up and offer to spread the word, which has helped immensely.

Specifically I’d like to thank:

Laurie Wisbrun, a fabric designer I’ve admired for a couple years now. I interviewed her for an article I was writing for WebCents magazine, then talked briefly of book-writing and sewing clothes. A friendship blossomed and she sewed up a ton of skirts, shorts and pencil bags for my project, then shared it on her blog.

Rashida Colemen-Hale, another fabric designer I adore. She’s a wonderful lady and mother, a woman I just happened to run into a million times at Spring Quilt Market and develop an online friendship with. She’s got amazing style! I got a ton of messages thanks to her posting the Sewing for Orphans project not only on her blog, but on Pinterest as well.

Sewn Studios, a modern fabrics & sewing lounge, shared the word thanks to the suggestion of Rachel Gander, the blogger behind Imagine Gnats. We’ve yet to meet in person (same with Laurie!), but that hasn’t stopped her from supporting my cause or us from becoming friends over Facebook and blogs. God bless the Internet for making new friends, really.

Which is how I met Kim Niedzwiecki, the whirling dervish behind Go-Go Kim. I first heard of her when I found the cathedral window pincushion tutorial (which I made and gave away in the swap Rachel mentions in her post!). We finally had a quick meeting at the Kona booth at Spring Quilt Market and through that and a crazy amount of FB Likes and comments, we’ve become friends of a sort. She was one of the first to post about my project and I’m super grateful she got it going.

And an enormous thank you to Shelly Figueroa, who was not only the first person to post it on her blog for me, she was also the first contributor to our Indiegogo campaign. Despite the fact that she lives locally, we hadn’t met in person. But I had interviewed her, again for work, months before, regarding her fantabulous book  Sewing for Boys book (written with Karen LePage).

Again and again, I’m awed by the kindness of people. And I am always grateful.