Woo Hoo 61 followers!!!

I wrote myself a note to celebrate 60 followers and when I checked  the page today to make sure nobody had dropped off I found there are now 61 followers!  Happy day!  Welcome all you new followers.  Hope you will stick around and join in the fun.  And to those of you who are reading the blog regularly but not following officially, if you don't mind becoming an official follower that would be great.  It is something that the sponsors look at and the more followers the better as far as they are concerned.  In the mean time though, 61 followers is great and averaging over 200 page views a days is pretty cool too!

Special message for Susan  

Hi Susan, I got your message via your comment but I can't be sure you have my reply as there is no email shown for you so I will repeat it here again just in case.

I don't usually have initials for the laundry bags any more.  Occasionally someone will give me a name but mostly the laundry bags just get a plain patch, jazzed up with a border, which is then sewn on the bag so that the soldiers can write their own details on it.  Please feel free to contact me again if you have any questions and thanks for getting involved!

The best way to make sure that we are able to contact you is to include your email address on your google profile.  If you have any questions let me know.

Well, it is packing week.  Post offices all over Australia are bracing themselves for the onslaught of Aussie Hero boxes arriving on their doorsteps first thing Thursday morning!  Okay, well maybe that is a slight exaggeration.........

It is,  however, time to start getting your boxes and folding those quilts.   I thought it would be a good idea to tell you how I fold the quilts and laundry bags to get them to fit into the boxes. 

First up fold your quilt in half top to bottom and then in thirds - like the picture.

Then you sort of fold/roll the quilt up and I try to make it so that the label is on the top when they open the box.  

This is one of the last personalised label I did.  It got way too stressful trying to make sure the right label was on the right quilt top when we were layering 10 or more quilts at a time.  

 As this laundry bag has initials on it I have folded it so that those are on the top. 

 You can see there is just enough room to tuck a packet of Timtams down the side of the box before it gets posted off.

 You need to remember your green customs form - I just value everything at $30 - don't want to make it look too expensive or it might not make the distance if you know what I mean and I also call the contents "linen" for the same reason.  If you don't have any stickers to put on your boxes then either let me know and I will send you some or write FROM AUSSIE HEROES on the top left corner of the box so that the chaplain knows what it is when he hands it out.  If you are sending a box of laundry bags - then just write laundry bags on the customs form.

Don't forget to add your address so that your soldier can send you a thank you note.  

Also you might like to include a note or a card inside. I include my email address as letters seem to take a really long time to get here and most of them can get some sort of internet access.

Finally please don't forget - no parcels can be posted before the 15th of March. 

Please send me a picture of your completed quilts and laundry bags for our gallery and also for our statistics.  When asked I would love to be able to say " We sent XXX quilts" with reasonable confidence.

And finally, some very special pictures.  I have been waiting patiently for these and I am so delighted to be able to show you some of the quilts that the Gumnuts made last year - the first ones that started this all - crated before Aussie Heroes came to be.  Here they are on beds of the guys in Afghanistan!  Please admire how neat their beds are - of course I am sure they are like this all the time, military discipline and all!

 You can even see one of the original laundry bags in this picture.  Good to see it has so far lasted the distance!

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