About Our BabyLock Machines
Our sewing center in Lusaka runs on Baby Lock machines. It's an honor to have their corporate support! How that happened can only be described as a wonderful journey of surprises and blessings.
Let me start at the beginning...
Our Original Machines: Cinnamon and I supported the Zambia team via our Liberty Jane Gives Back projects from 2009-2013 with various fundraisers and projects to get them a facility, sewing machines, and training. The machines were always used, random, and really funky! They just bought whatever they could find. Here is an example of two of the machines...
Blessed With BabyLock Machines: Then in 2014, we had the chance to return to Zambia to visit the program. We were thrilled to find that six new BabyLock machines had been recently donated to the program by another local non-profit. Here is a picture of Cinnamon showing the ladies how to use the machines from our 2014 trip ... and a close up with a few of the team members ...
Summer 2014
Expanding With 20 More BabyLock Machines: In 2016 our program expanded to 20 seamstresses and we needed more machines. The Zambia team said - they'd prefer to stay with BabyLock because they LOVED the original 6 BabyLock Machines. So, a generous donor wrote a check for 20 BabyLock Rachel machines, and our friends at Quality Sewing & Vac here in the Seattle area gave us an incredible deal. The team was thrilled in summer 2017 when we brought the new machines!
Side note - every time we visited the program in Lusaka (2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017), and took these types of pictures, I always thought to myself - I wish someone at BabyLock new about what we were doing! That they knew how much their machines were helping these ladies - and how big an impact we were starting to make in the lives of the children of Lusaka. But I never knew how to make that connection, it was just a wish.
Meeting The BabyLock Team: Then it happened. At the Houston Quilt Show in October 2018, the BabyLock team walked passed our booth and asked what Sew Powerful did. One of our amazing booth volunteers told them the story and gave them a copy of We Are Sew Powerful (shameless plug - please buy a copy and leave a review if you haven't yet).
Here is the Houston Quilt Show Team...
The next day, Cinnamon and I went to visit the BabyLock booth and had a terrific conversation with Linda, their Director of Education. She was reading the book, was excited to learn more, and had lots of questions. We left with high hopes and the start of a new friendship. A Few months later, several BabyLock team members visited us during the Seattle Sew Expo in Puyallup and we had the chance to have a nice dinner together. We told them all our stories and how the program worked. Then, in March at the Chicago Quilt Show, we connected with Linda again. It was unplanned, but we were all there on the same day - and had a terrific chat. Here is a picture at that show ...
Sharing At BabyLock Headquarters Last Week: So we were thrilled to be invited to share the Sew Powerful story at BabyLock Headquarters in St. Louis. That happened this last Wednesday night. The occasion was an event for their social media influencers. You prayed. We shared. Then everyone made a purse! Cinnamon and couldn't help but feel a deep sense of appreciation for the way this all came together - the long journey of hoping and dreaming - and the unexpected way it all happened. Wishes coming true. It was an honor to tell the story of the Sew Powerful programs ... and your story as purse makers, the Zambian seamstresses story, and the story of the children receiving help because we are all working together - and of course - how BabyLock machines have played an important part.
Here are a few of the pictures from that night:
Greater Things Are Yet To Come: I've said it a million times, and today it's truer than ever before ... Together we are Sew Powerful.
Grateful for you!
Jason & Cinnamon