Thursday 18 April 2013

Thursday FWQs

I suspect that there are a lot of people who do not realise that we make Fallen Warrior Quilts so I felt that it was an appropriate time to write a post about them. 
I have debated for a long time how to write this post as I do not want to make a habit of continually mentioning the names of those the Fallen Warrior Quilts are sent to. 
I hope you are happy with the way I chosen to handle this subject.

 Aussie Heroes was officially created on 1 Jan 2012.  A few months later the decision was made to commence making Wounded Warrior Quilts and the natural progression was made to make Fallen Warrior Quilts.  

I don't like to say who we made them for as that feels a bit like name dropping.  I am just not comfortable with it.  Suffice to say that since July 2012 every family that has lost a soldier in action in Afghanistan has been offered a quilt.  Not all have accepted for their own reasons, but most have.  What is important is that those who have wanted one have been given one.

Each Fallen Warrior Quilt has a label on it.  There have been a couple of versions as they have evolved but this is the label as it stands at the moment. 


When the need arose to make a Fallen Warrior Quilt for the first time we actually made more than one quilt. That included the soldier's wife, daughter and son, and because we were approached by a family member, we also made a quilt for the parents.  We were a new organisation and learning on our feet.  These days that is not sustainable so we offer each family one quilt.

I have never shown the Fallen Warrior Quilts on the blog (I don't think) but I felt enough time had passed to make it acceptable to share them now, and as so many of you had a hand in their construction, I felt you should be able to see them.  I also felt that others who read the blog regularly would appreciate being able to see them.

For the first family we asked, and were given guidelines, for the colours etc.  


We did out best to stick to them.


This one asked for the colours of Krye Cam and we were pretty lucky.


There was some available in the form of "retired" uniform pants that were passed to Liz who deconstructed them and was able to make almost the entire backing of the quilt from the cam fabric.  


That is only three quilts.  It only occurred to me when I put these photos together that I do not have a photo of the fourth quilt and I have no idea why as I know I took one!

The next lot of Fallen Warrior Quilts were made from Blocks of the month from September last year.  That month the BOMs were dedicated to FWQs and we received a record 400+ blocks!  These are some of the quilts that were made from those blocks which have since been passed to families of the Fallen Warriors.





So there you are.  With ANZAC Day drawing close it seemed appropriate to share some of the info regarding what we do with the Fallen Warrior Quilts.  If you have any questions feel free to email me and if I can I will answer your questions.


The following people have sent quilts off this week, according to my records.  If you have sent something off and are not on the following please let me know and if need be, jog my memory.

Angela
Bev and Geoff
Evelyn
Jill M
Judith
Julie Ann
Janine
Karen B
Leanne M
Carol
Fiona
Debbie M
Kerryn C
Lynn
Liz
Rita C
Maddy
Margaret
Rita M
Stephanie T
Joan
Sue N

Till next time....................keep spreading the word and happy stitching!

2 comments:

  1. I love seeing the BOMs in quilts. A quilt is a wonderful gift that means different things to different people and these must be treasures for those who have them but we all hope that there will never been a need for another Fallen Warrior Quilt.

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  2. Thank you for sharing this important information very informative, Love the quilts you have shown us and my thoughts are with the families.

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