"I always loved to stitch," said Cecelia, a Cincinnati-based needle artist with a heart for her community. About 30 years ago, Cecelia began to sell her cross-stitch prints in shops under her business name Heart in Hand Needleart. Since then, Cecilia has released hundreds of designs that sell in shops across the country.
Cecilia told us, "the stitching community is larger than you might think!" There are hundreds of physical cross stitch shops across the country. Throughout history, there has been a social aspect to stitching. Still today, stitchers gather together in person and online to stitch, creating community and fostering connections. As Cecilia was planning her new releases, she knew she wanted to create a philanthropic element to her new releases as an opportunity for this community to give back.
"For needleworkers, the home has always been a common motif in stitching, even going back to hundreds of years," she explained. School girls would stitch their homes into their samplers, so as long as needlework has been in existence, home has been a common, ever-present theme. "While the artwork for samplers has modernized quite a bit," she said, "we still retain that home motif as a strong symbol in many designs."
The home motif led her to think of Habitat for Humanity. Cecilia has an existing collection of needleart patterns titled Tiny Towns. They're seasonal towns that include the home design. "It's been a very popular series for me," she says. "As I was searching for a group to partner with… I just kept seeing houses," she said. "Houses would pop into my brain, and I think it was the urges of the spirit. I finally just said one day: 'it's Habitat. I need to partner with Habitat.'"
When she released two brand new Tiny Towns designs, Cecelia decided that she would take the sales from the first month and donate them directly to Habitat Greater Cincinnati. This launched into a promotion she called "Stitch a House, Build a House." As stitchers stitched their own Tiny Town, they would know that they helped to build a home for a Habitat family in Greater Cincinnati. Through her promoting on social media and trade shows, she was able to pull a community together to get behind this promotion.
The stitching community quickly embraced Cecilia's idea and raised over $30k for Habitat Greater Cincinnati through the sale of Tiny Towns. "I'm the conduit for my generous community coming together and making this great donation," she said. "People like to know that the money they're spending is going towards something meaningful, something that makes a difference." This is proven through the strong sales of Tiny Towns.
So, besides the funds Cecelia's new designs were able to raise, she also inspired others to give, creating a ripple effect. "I heard from a lot of other shop owners, and I still am hearing from people… how excited they are that they were able to partner with Heart in Hand and Habitat for Humanity," she said. "What's been fun, too, is the shops who've done something on their own after this, and I call it the ripple effect--that other things are happening within other communities around the country because they have [local] Habitats […] So they're doing something in their community to add to what we did here in Cincinnati.
"For me, it was pulling the community together," Cecelia said. "I can donate some money, but pulling a community of people together and allowing them to get excited about a philanthropic effort is way more rewarding for everybody and way more powerful. Together when we work on something, we are way more powerful and way stronger than if we individually… donate a little money here or there."
"If somebody else was thinking about 'how could I do something?' I say pull your community together," said Cecelia. "Talk to them about what the link is from what Habitat's doing to maybe your community. Promote the heck out of it and talk to people and try and get people involved. If you can push that word out, you can create a ripple effect that extends even beyond the focus that you put on your efforts."