Kayla and I were talking cross stitch and she asked if she could write a guest post here on the blog. I said sure…
A guest post from Kayla…
I saw a great idea on TikTok… You can support the people of Ukraine by making digital purchases from their Etsy shops.
Once a shop owner uploads a file and makes a listing, the item can be sold and downloaded continually with no additional work from them. So even though their lives are in turmoil, their Etsy shop can keep working away for them.
Think of things you might already purchase digitally: Printable art, planner pages, etc, and filter results by location to Ukraine.
I did this with cross-stitch patterns and rounded up a few of my favorites to share.
XCrossStitchPatternX has a great variety of Scandi-inspired designs.
And choosing a single pattern from her Norwegian-inspired category was far too difficult, so this set of five fits the bill.
It’s hard to choose favorites from StitchyPrincess. The shop has many whimsical seasonal samplers.
This bunny and carrot design would work up quickly for Easter.
And it never occurred to me to need a cross stitch sampler for my bathroom, but this one made me consider it.
FireplaceHobby is a shop full of biscornu patterns. They come together in such interesting ways.
Like this reindeer design with trees that meet in the middle
Or this spider design for Halloween
Or a set of three Christmas designs if you can’t settle on one favorite.
Consider making a purchase from these makers and comment below if you have found digital items that other readers might like. It’s such a small thing to do, but as an Etsy seller myself I know how much I appreciate every notification for every sale. Let’s light these folks’ phones up with sales and messages of support.
I’m also adding a link to The Quilted Twins’ website HERE. In this post Becky, the missionary in Poland, tells about what she is doing with the money that has been donated so far to help the refugees coming to Poland from Ukraine.
I love the idea. Another blog writer suggested the same thing, and said that Etsy is suspending all fees for these artists. Thank you for the post.
I love this idea, but I was recently warned that if purchasing from a Ukrainian shop, contact the seller to see how to pay them. We cannot send them funds if it goes through a Russian bank, and I am not sure they would receive them either.
I too bought a beautiful pattern from Stitchyprincess of a Lady and sunflowers cannot wait to majestic it. Her pattern looks so easy to read. Makes one feel like we are helping someone directly and that we are at least doing something, even if it’s small, it adds up for seller. The fact that PayPal is helping with fees too is great. It’s the little things one can do to help. And too get something one can use too
I saw this a few days ago and bought a bunch of cross stitch patterns, some from the shops mentioned. I so loved the idea of supporting these sellers at a time like this. Thank you for getting the word out!
What a great idea! I bought 3 patterns tonight.
I saw this idea on another blog and purchased several cross-stitch patterns. I received wonderful thank you notes from the sellers and they are so appreciative of our support. This is a great idea! Thank you Kayla.
Amid Simms (quilter) made this suggestion in an email list a couple of weeks ago. I thought it was a great idea, so went and bought patterns from EmbroSTyleDesigns, Stitchy Princess, StitchesMania, MilaCrossStitch, and KitsBySAstitch. All are really cute and fun. I have even stitched up one already that I finished yesterday! It made me happy to help them out in even this small way!
Thanks for the Etsy tip. I’ll have to check those out. Thanks also for mentioning Quilted Twins. Becky has been busy since the beginning collecting & passing on everything from diapers to flashlights & power cords.
Great idea, Kayla!!
I purchased snowflake designs from Vivid Stitch Shop
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1128053477/set-of-3-christmas-snowflakes-patterns?ref=yr_purchases
I have been donating to Becky and her efforts also.
I felt so good helping them! I highly recommend it!
My daughter has been doing this since the beginning of the war from a site she knew of before the war started. Just make sure you’re ordering from a legitimate dealer and not a fly-by-night in another country that set up an Etsy shop just to make money. You can do this with airbnb’s in Ukraine as well. Of course you won’t be going but you will help support the family wherever they are at. As you said Quilted Twins is on the ground in Poland and has been for years and it’s a good legitimate source to donate to. So is Cama services through Christian and Missionary Alliance as they have been in the area for years as well.
Quilted twins are doing a wonderful thing for all those that end up in their village. So glad to donate to them and thanks for sharing there “donate” button.