That much money makes a real and lasting impact so thank you, thank you, thank you! Together we’ve really made a difference for some women and children.

All of the winners of the prizes will be contacted within two days.

Action Kivu needs help year round so please think of them and you can learn much more about them on their website.

The fundraiser is now over but Action Kivu always needs your help. Please give to them any time.

Time flies and it’s yet again time for the Action Kivu Fundraiser! The 3rd annual! Today is the first eighth and final day of the fundraiser, held here on my blog, through this week. The fundraiser will end, and the giveaways will close, on Monday the 20th at midnight, Pacific time.

For those of you who are new to my blog, here’s the lowdown: there are amazing giveaways involved in this fundraiser and together we do a lot of good.

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know about Action Kivu, but for those of you who don’t know, Action Kivu is a nonprofit that helps women who are victims of the conflict in Eastern Congo by teaching them to sew at a sewing workshop. Action Kivu also pays for children to go to school. The conflict in Congo has taken the lives of over 5.4 million people since 1998. Rape is used as a weapon of war, with estimates putting the number of rapes in the hundreds of thousands. These are horrible statistics but together we can make a difference for some specific women and children.

My twin sister, Cate, runs Action Kivu and she went to Eastern Congo early this year to see the sewing workshop and meet the women there. It was an amazing trip. She saw, with her own eyes, the good that we have done with this fundraiser. For example:

Cate met this woman, Nzigira, who is a graduate of the sewing workshop and is now supporting her family as a seamstress. That pretty sewing machine she’s using?? Our fundraiser last year bought it for her.  She is just one example of many women and children who have been directly helped by this fundraiser.  Please give this year so that we can help even more!  Even just $10 makes a difference!

Last year we raised an amazing $15,000! This year? We’re making our goal even higher. We’re shooting for $20,000 and together we can get there!!  The American staff of Action Kivu is 100% volunteer, so all of your donations, minus nominal banking fees, go directly to the work on the ground, empowering and educating the women and children of eastern Congo.

See that thermometer on my side bar? (click through if you’re seeing this in a reader) Let’s get it movin’ up and up and up! The online sewing community that I know, and am so lucky to be a part of, is such a generous place. Let’s pool that generosity and make a real difference in the lives of some women and children who really need our help.  Please give.

So here’s how it works:

In order to be entered to win a giveaway, all that you have to do is give the amount assigned to that prize. Can’t decide which giveaway you want to be in the running for? You can enter more than one! Just donate the dollar amount associated with a prize and you’ve got a chance to win it. However, you can only enter each giveaway once.

Added afternoon of 8/13: Anna Maria Horner has added a bundle of 6 fat quarters from her new line, Field Study, to each and every prize!

It doesn’t matter which prize you pick, you’ll also win six fat quarters of these beautiful fabrics! Thank you Anna!

$10 Donation:______________________________________________________ 

Updated to be an even bigger prize! Give only $10 and be entered to win a signed copy of Modern Log Cabin Quilting, donated by its generous author, Susan Beal, the new Winter issue of Stitch, with a nice feature on wool sewing, donated by Stitch, a brand-new set of 8 wool fat quarters, and a baby quilt kit (which includes 2 FQs and 1 full yard of wool), donated by Pendleton Woolen Mills.

Loads of great prizes this time around! That’s not even all of ‘em…

See you back here on Monday when the fundraiser launches.

Ok so seriously – you are all the best!! I’m getting emotional over here thinking about all of the small (and some very large!) bits of generosity that we combined into the huge effort of reaching our goal and then some! Together we raised an amazing

$15,135!!!

We are going to make a real concrete difference for some women and children who who we are helping. The money we’ve raised here will go a long way. It will pay for the sewing workshop graduation kits for 43 women. They have learned the skills and now they will have the sewing machines and supplies they need to make a living. These are women who would not be able to do this without the money that we raised here together. Our money will also pay for the sewing workshop to continue running for a new group of women to learn. Additionally, our money will pay for children to go to school, altering their futures immeasurably. Together we have made the lives of some women and children a bit better.

It’s often unbearable to imagine the pain and suffering these victims of the conflict in eastern Congo have lived through – but know that we’ve helped some of them to begin rebuilding their lives. All while sitting in front of our computers. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?

So thank you. Thank you a million times over! Thank you to those who gave money, to those who gave prizes and to those who helped to spread the word that this fundraiser was happening. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

A big congrats to the winners of the prizes. We’re sending emails to everyone one who won today, so keep an eye out for that! And everyone else, your donation is tax deductible so we’ll be sending you a letter within the next couple of weeks.

I know that for some of you the needs of these women and children and the work that Action Kivu does really struck a chord. If you’re wondering what more you could do, you could set up a monthly donation, (no matter how small!) or you could organize a bake sale or your guild could make a charity quilt to raise funds. I can easily connect anyone who’s interested directly with Action Kivu and they would be thrilled to work with you. Know that the needs of Congolese women and children are huge and Action Kivu is always in need of more donations. You can also keep up with Action Kivu by liking them on Facebook or following them on Twitter.

And we’ll be here again next year doing it all over again! Again, thank you all so much!

The giveaways for this fundraiser are now closed but Action Kivu always needs donations. Thank you!

Here it is! Year two of the Action Kivu Fundraiser! Today is the first final day of this fundraiser that will be happening right here on my blog throughout this week. The fundraiser and giveaways are open through midnight (PST) on Monday the 15th.

There are amazing prizes to be had so please learn about this worthy cause and keep reading!

If you were were reading along last year (can you believe it’s been an entire year?!?)  you know about Action Kivu, but for those of you who don’t know, Action Kivu is a nonprofit that helps women who are victims of the conflict in Eastern Congo by teaching them to sew.  The conflict in Congo has taken the lives of over 5.4 million people since 1998. Rape is used as a weapon of war, with estimates putting the number of rapes in the hundreds of thousands.  This is truly difficult stuff to think about but together we can really make a difference for some specific women who need our help.

By learning to be seamstresses these women can then support themselves and their families. Action Kivu also pays to send  Congolese children to school.  You can read a lot about them on their web site.

Last year we raised an amazing $10,000 over the course of a week and this year we’re upping the goal!!

Together, we can raise $15,000 for this amazing organization and the women and children it benefits.

That’s just 300 of you giving $50. That’s realistic, right??  Please give and help us reach our goal!  See that thermometer on my side bar? (click through if you’re seeing this in a reader) This week we are going to make it move up and and up and up and we need YOU to help us do that!

As a sewing community we are so giving, generous and lucky to have each other and the amazing support we provide for one another. Let’s spread that net of support wider and help these women and children.  Together we can make a real difference.  Please give!

Now  – getting down to business!! The giveaways!! In order to be entered to win a prize, all that you have to do is give the amount assigned to that prize.   Can’t decide which giveaway you want to be in the running for?  You can enter more than one!  Just donate the dollar amount associated with a prize and you’ve got a chance to win it! However, you can only enter each giveaway once.  Now let’s check out all of the prizes that were donated by so many wonderfully giving people.

Added 8/11 – every one who wins a prize will also get one Anna Maria Horner pattern of your choice!

$10 Donation:                                                                                                                                                    

Every dollar counts so give just $10 and be in the running to win these two yards of incredibly hard to find fabrics. One yard of Erin Michael’s paint by number birds in blue and one yard of her paint by number deer in blue!

$25 Donation:                                                                                                                                                   

Give $25 and you will be entered to win a fat quarter pack of the entire line of Happy Mochi Yum Yum by Monica Solorio-Snow donated by Sew Modern! That’s 30 fat quarters of this wonderful new fabric line.

$40 Donation:                                                                                                                                                   

A fat quarter pack of the not yet in stores Sugar Creek line by Denyse Schmidt!! A huge thanks to Denyse Schmidt Quilts for their kindness in donating this bundle! Can you believe that you might be lucky enough to get your hands on some of this fabric before anyone else does? Give $40 and this bundle could be yours!

165 Fat Eighths of mostly Kona Cottons, but also Quilters Linen and Free Spirit Designer Solids!! Generously donated by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson!  We’re talkin’ over 20 yards of  fabric here!  Give $60 now and start daydreaming about the quilts you will be sewing up with this fabric if it becomes yours!

$75 Donation:                                                                                                                                              

43 different fat eighths of Flea Market Fancy! Donate now to win this incredibly sought after and hard to find fabric line. Donated by Jacquie Gering of Tallgrass Prairie Studio. Thanks to Ashley Newcomb of Film In the Fridge for her contribution to this bundle!  A donation of $75 and this fabric could be yours!

$85 Donation:                                                                                                                                                         Give $85 and this gorgeous baby quilt that was generously donated by Anna Maria Horner could be coming home to you, straight from Anna Maria’s studio! Some details:
100% cotton patchwork quilt with hand quilting throughout using pearl cotton
Inner batting made of cotton/bamboo blend
finished dimensions: 39″ X 48 1/2″ (perfect for a crib)

$100 Donation:                                                                                                                                                             
And finally… 13 yards plus loads of scraps of Heather Ross fabric! There are full yard cuts all the way down to little scraps! There’s fabric from multiple lines from West Hill to Far Far Away. There’s Munki Munki scraps, VW Buses, Gnomes, Goldfish… it’s all here.  Please check out this flickr folder to see detailed photos and a list of what’s in this bundle. Give $100 now and not only will you be helping so much, you also could become the owner of this huge Heather Ross bundle!

And please help to spread the word about this fundraiser! Tell your friends, post it on Facebook and Twitter or blog about it – let’s all join together and really make a difference!

More details you might want to know:

I got involved with Action Kivu because my twin sister, Cate, works with them. Action Kivu provides some of the eastern Congo’s victims of violence with the opportunity to rebuild their lives on a foundation of hope, dignity, and economic self-sustenance. Their approach is spearheaded through two programs. First, they run a sewing workshop that teaches women who are victims of the conflict to sew. Secondly, they pay for children to go to school which is not free in Congo.

Action Kivu is run in eastern Congo by a Congolese man, Amani Matabaro  (you can meet him if you watch the video on the Action Kivu web site), who Cate knows personally and who is amazingly passionate and committed to his cause of helping women and children in his country. As an orphan who lost his parents in the conflict, he was driven to try to do something to help.  We will not be throwing this money into the wind, not knowing where it’s going.

Additionally, here in the US, Action Kivu is 100% run by volunteers.   Every dollar we raise here, aside from banking fees, will go directly to Action Kivu and these woman and children in need.  If you’d like, you can learn more about the conflict in Eastern Congo here.

Any other questions at all?  Just drop me an email or comment and I will happily get you an answer!

Have a wonderful weekend and see you Monday!

We are lucky enough to be able to concretely see the fruits of our giving through some photos of the women in the workshop with their new machines that our fundraiser bought them.   Because of our fund raising they have also been able to move the workshop to a much safer location.

It’s pretty great to know that together we’ve done some real good here!  And we’ll be doing it all over again next year!

Meanwhile, please remember that Action Kivu is always taking donations. Perhaps you can set up a monthly donation? It can be small! And if you have more time than money, maybe your guild would like to raise some money with a charity quilt?   Or perhaps you’d like to throw a bake sale at your church?   Any amount helps these women who have been through so much and who are improving their lives with sewing.

$10,510!!!

That’s how much money we raised for Action Kivu!  $7500 for the sewing workshop and the rest to help Congolese children go to school.  Can you believe what we can do when we all join together to help?  I am overwhelmed with happiness and emotion about it.  You have all proven to me, yet again, just how compassionate and generous this amazing online sewing community is.

An enormous thank you to each and every one of you who donated or helped by blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting, telling your friends and just generally spreading the word.  It was all of us working together that made this such a success!

Because it has gone so well and the needs in eastern Congo are so great, I’ve decided that I’ll be holding this fundraiser annually.  Can you commit right now to giving again next year?  I do hope so.   Perhaps you read this news report last week about the recent mass rapes.  Every day there are more women and children who need the help we can provide.  So we will do this again in August 2011!

In the meantime know that Action Kivu is ALWAYS in need of donations. They are a tiny organization that does not have any large funders or donors.   They always need any help you can give, at any time you can give it. If this organization struck a chord in you, consider setting up a regular monthly donation.  Perhaps you’d like to organize a bake sale, a charity quilt, or whatever you can think of – any sort of fundraising helps.

From here, know that I’ll be posting photos on my blog of the results of our amazing fundraising! We will see the sewing machines, the new location for the sewing workshop and the benefits of the money we’ve raised here together.  Again, thank you all so so much for your amazingly generous donations!!

Photo by Candice Knezevic/The Enough Project

And the fundraiser fabric pack winners??   The Heather Ross fat quarter pack goes to Larri Manos, the Colorwheel bundle to Stephanie Wood, and the Flea Market Fancy pack winner is Sheridan Powell!  Congrats to the winners and one more thank you to each and every one of you who gave!

The fabric giveaways are now closed but Action Kivu is always in need of donations.  Please read about Action Kivu, below and give what you can.

Hello everyone! It’s an exciting day.

Today is the first fifth day of a week long fundraiser that I’m hosting right here on my blog.  I’ll get to the serious stuff but let me just start by telling you that there are amazing fabric giveaways involved! Really and truly amazing.  Ok, on to the tough stuff…

This is a fundraiser for Action Kivu, an organization in eastern Congo that runs a sewing workshop for victims of the conflict there. The conflict in Congo has taken the lives of over 5.4 million people since 1998. Rape is used as a weapon of war, with estimates putting the number of rapes in the hundreds of thousands.

Needless to say, this specific organization, with its link to sewing and women, really strikes a personal chord in me and I suspect, with many of you as well.  Our online sewing community is so blessed to be able to pursue our love of sewing as a hobby, career, or just for fun, but for these women, learning to sew is life changing and gives them hope for their futures.

The Action Kivu sewing workshop of course costs money to run and they need supplies – sewing machines and more.  I am launching this fundraiser to raise the money for their supplies (and Action Kivu’s other activities should we raise over $7500) and I hope that you’ll join me by giving what you can.  All donations are tax deductible.

This is not lighthearted stuff and it is difficult to face, but we’re in a real position to help these sewing sisters so please do take the time to watch this 5 minute video and donate.   After you watch the video, scroll down to learn the details of the fabric giveaways that you could win if you give!

My goal, $7500 $10,000 (you’re so generous it had to go up!), will make an enormous difference.  See that thermometer up on my side bar? (Please click through if you’re reading this through a reader.)  Let’s make it grow all week long!!

$10000 is just 400 people giving $25 each!  Please decide to be one of those 400.

The original $7500 raised will go to the Sewing Workshop for their supplies.  Money raised in addition to that will go to Action Kivu’s other activities.  Along with running the Sewing Workshop, Action Kivu also pays for vulnerable children to go to school.  This money we are raising will help so many women and children!

Over and over I have personally experienced the amazing generosity and kindness that exists in our community.  Let’s all join together in that spirit to help these women to learn to sew and start a new life.

And so that fabric I mentioned? Here’s the deal – if you give, you qualify to win these amazing giveaways!

Give $25.00 and you’re in the running to win 8 fat quarters of out of print Heather Ross fabrics!  VW Buses and all!

Thanks to Ashley from Film in the Fridge for help with putting this pack together.

Give $50.00 and you can win 96 fat eighths in this amazing color wheel assortment!  No I’m not kidding – NINETY SIX!  Half solids and half patterned fabrics.  Think of all the amazing projects you could use this fabric for.

Generously donated by Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson!

But it doesn’t end there…

Give $75.00 and you are entered to win fat eighths of the ENTIRE line of Flea Market Fancy. We’re talking 45 fat eighths!

Generously donated by Jacquie from Tallgrass Prairie Studio. Thanks to Ashley & Heather for help with completing the set!

So please do DONATE!!! And give what you can – if you can give $10, please do. If you can give $500, please do! Click and give so that we can all work together to help these women!

And please help to spread the word about this fundraiser! Tell your friends or blog about it – let’s all join together and really make a difference!

Many more details in the case that you’d like to know them:

You’re probably wondering how I got involved. My twin sister, Cate, is working with Action Kivu. Action Kivu provides some of the eastern Congo’s victims of violence with the opportunity to rebuild their lives on a foundation of hope, dignity, and economic self-sustenance. Their approach is spearheaded through two programs. First, they run a sewing workshop that teaches women who are victims of the conflict to sew. This leads them to be able to support themselves and their families. Secondly, they pay for children to go to school which is not free in Congo. It costs $40 a year, per child. That’s very little money that makes a big impact.

If you are wondering why we can’t just donate our old sewing machines, there are a few reasons. First, getting supplies to eastern Congo is no simple task and would cost more than the value of the goods. Secondly they need very specific things. For example, they don’t always have power so they need trundle sewing machines. Lastly, it’s best that they buy the supplies there, putting the money into the local economy. You can imagine that buying a sewing machine helps not only the woman who sews with it, but the person they buy it from and the money trickles down from there.

Action Kivu is run in eastern Congo by a Congolese man, Amani Matabaro (who you saw in the video), who Cate knows personally and who is amazingly passionate and committed to his cause of helping women and children in his country. As an orphan who lost his parents in the conflict, he was driven to try to do something to help. He currently works as an interpreter for the UN and runs Action Kivu in all of his spare time. Amani has specifically asked for these things – we will not be throwing this money into the wind, not knowing where it’s going. Through photos and emails with Amani we will be able to see the immediate and concrete results of our fundraising.

If you’d like, you can learn more about the conflict, here.

Any other questions? Just drop me an email or comment and I will happily answer them for you!

Action Kivu is always taking donations but entries into the giveaways close on Sunday, 8/29 12:00 am EST.