Destash for Japan

I love Japan. I would love Japan even if I wasn't half Japanese. I would love Japan even if my family didn't come from the traumatized Tohoku region. So when my friend told me about his fundraising efforts to create kits that will help those who lost everything to get back on their feet, I knew I had to help him out.

What better way than destashing my precious fabrics. A disaster of this magnitude is an excellent reminder that I shouldn't be so attached to my fabric! All proceeds will go to relief efforts in Japan so please consider buying something.

If you're on a fabric diet there are other ways to help Japan or Haiti or any other country.  Here are five ideas to get you started.

1. Give up a yard of fabric a month to sign up for monthly donations to your favourite disaster response charity. We are all eager to give when disaster strikes but it's the year round donations that make it possible for organizations like the Red Cross or Shelterbox to be on the ground within 24 hours. They need funds in the bank at the moment a disaster strikes. 
2. Sign up for Modern Relief Japan and either donate a quilt to the raffle or buy a raffle ticket. EDIT: http://www.quiltersnewsletter.com/blogs/insideqn/2011/03/18/call-for-quilts-for-japan/ a call from Japan to collect comfort quilts. 
3. Got time? Sew a quilt for Mission of Love. I heart their mission and guidelines.
4. Volunteer your non-sewing skills. Most professional organizations have a volunteer unit similar to Doctors without Borders. I am an Urban Planner and have been asked to volunteer my GIS skills to perform analysis on the quake/tsunami stricken area. Engineers, earth scientists, counsellors, etc will be needed by the numerous NGO's on the ground. 
5. Scrounge up the money to buy something from my destash :) It's going to a good cause, is easy as clicking a few buttons, and will hopefully help some elderly and families get back on their feet. 

As an added incentive, if everything in my destash shop sells by March 30, 2011, then I will raffle off a FQ of FMF gray seeds. You will receive 1 raffle entry (random number generator) for every $10 you spend in the shop. But only if it all sells. You can do the math. There won't be more than $1000 worth of items so there won't be more than 100 chances to win. In fact, there probably won't be more than $500 worth of items.  Those are pretty good odds for a piece of lovelyness.

Details:
Many nice people sent me messages telling me not to destash below market value. I have taken their advice and raised my prices a little. I have still tried to keep the prices below the going rate on etsy but I've decided that, given the cause, I should try to get more than just retail. I hope you understand. 
I will try to post all the items at 10:00 am on March 22, 2011
My shop   Don't laugh at my store - this is tiring :)
If I think you're a reseller, I will have no problem cancelling the sale.
Shipping will happen on the weekend.

Thanks in advance for whatever you do to help people in hard times. It doesn't go unnoticed!