my dream

So.

Several weeks ago, I mentioned my dream.

Not a while-I-was-sleeping dream, but a long lingering this-is-what-I-want-to-do-someday dream.

~

Sewing is something that I am passionate about.
Helping women is something I want to be passionate about.

I feel deeply the desire to do something,

but I've never been quite sure what that something was.

My role as a homeschooling mom (who makes pretty much everything from scratch and tries to love her husband well,
while keeping the house somewhat picked up and clothes mostly clean and still be available to serve others)
keeps me pretty well occupied,

and I've never really felt or heard a call to do 'X'.

And so I've done very little.

~

Remember this quilt?

(It felt really good to bring Nancy's dream quilt to life :-)

Well, Nancy paid me generously for making it for her.

She told me, "I know you didn't want me to pay you, but you can do some of your giving with the money."

I still have some of that money tucked in the sweet thank-you card she gave me,

but I've spent most of it.

The biggest chunk was spent on

- can you guess? -

a sewing machine.

Rahab's Rope is an organization that rescues Indian women (girls, really, lots of the time) from slavery.

They house them, love them, disciple them,

and teach them skills.

Including, but not limited to, sewing skills.

For which they need sewing machines....

While I was happy to give a sewing machine to the school, what I really wanted
was to give one to a person.

So before I bought the gift of a sewing machine, I contacted Rahab's Rope.

I didn't hear back from them for a few weeks,

then one day, I was thinking that it'd been plenty long enough, maybe I should send another message,

and the phone rang.

It was a gal from RR, telling me she'd gotten my message,

and while sewing machines normally go to their school, they actually just had a woman  that requested her own personal machine.

She'd been in their program for quite some time and was an experienced seamstress.

She was in charge of their rice bag production

(which made me wish I'd bought one ;-)

She also had aids.

And two little girls who were HIV positive.

A sewing machine would allow her to work from home, and be with them.

It would allow her to become self-sufficient,

which is the whole goal of Rahab's Rope.

I couldn't get that machine ordered fast enough.

I sent Nancy a text: 

Guess what you and I just did :-) :-) :-)?

We just bought a sewing machine for a woman in India...

I was so excited!

Ya'll.

That sewing machine changed a life.

Nancy and I, 

two middle-aged women,

changed a life with the gift of a sewing machine.

And a tiny seed of a dream was planted in my heart.

~

When I started on Any Which Way, in red,

I didn't have anyone in particular to make it for,

it just wanted to be made.

I thought maybe, perhaps, I could sell it, so I kept track of my time.

People would ask, "Who is this one for?"

I would say, "I don't know yet."

But I had a dream...

Mitchell  (Tyler's brother) was visiting and Tyler was showing him his quilt, which I'd recently finished.

I pulled out my little stack of red and white blocks, and showed those to him, too.

I don't recall exactly how the conversation went,

but his positive response to my quilts
(this is a man with impeccable taste!)
resulted in me telling him (and Tyler) my dream,

"I want to sell quilts  and use the money to buy sewing machines for women rescued from slavery."

My dream
 is to change lives

one sewing machine at a time.

When I first had the dream, I thought it would be years before I could do anything with it,

I mean, I just don't have a lot of time....

But I decided to start now.

Do what I can.

I probably won't sell Any Which Way;

(which is finally basted and waiting patiently to be quilted)

I have a lot of time invested in it,

and I seriously doubt any one would want to pay my rate of $10 an hour plus materials, 

but the making of it

helped cement my dream, and voice it.
(It also helped me realize that even though it was excellent for sharpening my skills,
I probably need to pick simpler projects if I hope to actually sell them ;-)

I'm not entirely sure how to go about the selling of my stuffs,

probably a (very poorly stocked) etsy shop,

but I may not have to worry about that though, because God has already dropped 2 custom projects in my lap.

(the super secret project I mentioned, and a quilt that I was hired just last week to make)

so maybe He will just bring buyers to me too.

By my calculations, 

those 2 projects, plus the ridiculously fun pigeon quilt that will be available for sale in just a few days,

will buy 3 sewing machines.
Three!

Ya'll.
I'm living my dream.

I get to combine two things I am passionate about,
and

I am changing lives

(one stitch) and one sewing machine at a time.

(please know that I know that it's not really me doing the life-changing, I just get to be one of the tools)