Amazing!

My destash fundraiser was a huge success thanks to all of you amazing fabric lovers! The fabric is packaged and U.S. destinations were sent today. International will go out on Monday because I arrived at the post office close to closing time. When they saw how many packages I had they wouldn't let me stand in line.

After shipping, shipping refunds, etsy fees, and paypal fees the total raised was $860.00!! Can you believe that? A little fabric and some nice people can make a big difference. Only 3 items are left in the shop. 3 items! I know I said that everything had to sell for the gray seeds raffle to happen but I'm thrilled so I am still going to raffle the FQ on March 30. I also have that "ooo, so close" feeling with the amount raised so I plan to add a few more items to the shop to try and bring the total to $1000 even.

Thank you so much to everyone who purchased something. I hope that you are happy with your purchase and have a lovely time sewing. It was very cathartic to let go of so many favourite pieces. While I was packing them, I only felt a pang of regret twice. It was really hard to let the multi-coloured buttons on cream and the swell charm packs go. But, I pressed on and it's for the better.

If you decide to do a destash fundraiser in the future, please let me know. I would love to support you!

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!

One post a month blog

That seems to be the trend. I feel like I have nothing crafty to blog about but, when I think about it, I really do.

I just finished my Urban Home Goods swap item for my partner.  I don't know what it is but I love it and I hope my partner does too.  Is it a center piece? table mat? candle mat? hot pad? my partner can decide. Whatever it is, I'm just glad it's finished on time! It was a pretty close call as I didn't realize that it would be such a time consuming project.

The pattern was picked up at Satin Moon Quilt shop (a cooler shop than their website would lead you to believe) in Victoria, BC while I was home for Christmas. Because of that, I have no idea if I can post a tutorial. It doesn't require any pattern pieces, it's really just a couple pages of typed instructions. As you can see it's a pretty basic pattern (I added an extra row so the one I made it larger, maybe 14.5").

This leads me to believe that free tutorials abound on the interwebs. But what is it called? I've found lots of the styrofoam christmas balls that are made the same way but none for a flat item.  As soon as I find one, I'll post a link here. I also plan to post some tips so you don't have to learn the hard way.

Edit: Here's a tutorial with a different folding method that results in a different but lovely hotpad! 

All that said, it is totally worth the time and effort. I love it so much I can barely part with it. In fact, if I hadn't left it so close to the deadline (hours), I might have kept it for myself and made something different for my partner. 

Alas, it's headed to it's new home where it's destined to be...something.