This Labor Day, Meet the Women Behind Every Stitch

When you look at a finished hexagon quilt, it’s easy to notice the colors first.

Hundreds of little pieces of fabric come together to create something beautiful. But this Labor Day, we want to draw your attention to something else.

The hands that put them together.

Every handmade quilt, jacket, bag, apron, and other piece you find at One Common Thread exists because of the work of women in Honduras. They are the Makers behind One Common Thread, and today, we want to celebrate them.

Handmade Really Does Mean Made by Hand

We use the word handmade a lot. Sometimes it’s easy to forget just how much that word actually means.

Our hexagon quilts don't begin as finished patterns rolling off a machine. They begin as individual pieces of fabric.

One by one, those pieces are prepared and stitched together. A few hexagons become a cluster. Clusters grow larger. Slowly, all those individual stitches become a quilt.

It takes patience. It takes skill. And most of all, it takes time.

When you see a finished One Common Thread quilt, you're looking at hours and hours of someone's work.

Meet the Women Behind the Work

Our Makers live in Honduras.

One Common Thread gives women the opportunity to earn an income through work they can do from home. That matters because work doesn't exist separately from the rest of life.

There are children to care for. Homes to run. Families that need them.

Being able to sew from home gives our Makers a way to earn income while remaining present for the people who depend on them.

And over the years, these women have become incredibly skilled at what they do.

Every Stitch Represents Someone's Time

There is something different about holding an object when you know a person made it.

Look closely at one of our hexagon quilts and think about every little seam. Someone had to make each one.

The same is true of our quilted jackets and the other handmade pieces in our shop. Before they ever arrive at One Common Thread, someone has spent her time turning fabric into something another person can use and love.

That human element is something we never want to lose.

Your Fabric Can Become Part of Their Work

One of our favorite parts of One Common Thread is seeing what can happen to fabric that someone else no longer needs.

We receive donated fabric that can be given a completely new purpose in the hands of our Makers. A piece that might have sat unused in a sewing room can eventually find its way into a hexagon quilt or another handmade piece.

It means that the work happening in Honduras is connected to a much larger community of people who donate fabric, purchase finished pieces, tell their friends about us, and continue supporting what these women do.

One common thread, quite literally.

This Labor Day, We're Celebrating Them

Labor Day gives us a reason to think about the people behind the things we use every day.

For us, those people have names, families, talents, and hands that have stitched thousands upon thousands of little pieces of fabric together.

One Common Thread wouldn't exist without them.

So today, we're celebrating our Makers and the work they do, one stitch at a time.

And we'd love for you to get to know them, too.