Whoops and why we do this

Don't forget our Penrith Sewing Day - 

this Sunday at Penrith Patchwork, 

Rear Entrance 97B Henry St, Penrith.

10am to 3pm.  BYO Sewing machine, lunch and snacks. 

All materials plus tea and coffee provided

First up a bit of a giggle 

and a word of warning 

at the expense of one of our most loyal Friends 

and, I might add, with her permission.

A while a go, as the result of a request Marg made this laundry bag for an ardent football fan.

As you can tell, lots of work went into it and it was extremely well received.

I returned from my mid tour break today and my wonderful laundry bag and goodies were waiting for me! Thank-you so much, I love the laundry bag, it is perfect! And yes Marg - after that flogging by Sydney last weekend, I might need to turn it inside out occasionally. I am going to have to keep hitting the gym to work off all those tim tams - thank-you so much!   Thanks again for the lovely laundry bag - you ladies do a fantastic job and your efforts are appreciated by everyone over here.  

Of course there were some jealous workmates and an equally fanatical brother in the Navy so once again Marg went above and beyond the call of duty and (not so) effortlessly whipped up four more bags.  Now, I think she might have been working a little too hard for a little too long............

Spot the obvious error!  I guess someone is going to have a really individual laundry bag!  Oops!

And before anyone else gets any ideas these are the last of them.  

In order to preserve Marg's sanity and sense of humour there will be no more!

Marg's enlightened suggestion- 

always check and double check if you are making something directional!

LOL

I have finally managed to add all of the email addresses of those who have sent me their details for the Aussie Hero Friends Register to the consolidated Aussie Heroes Email Group so that now I can email all of you at once.

Special Requests

From now on when I get a request for a quilt or a laundry bag I will be sending out an email.   If you wish to be included in that email please send me your details.  If you didn't receive my test email today then I don't have you on the Register of Aussie Hero Friends and you might need to send me your details again if you already have.

Revisiting some Thank you messages for our new followers.

Part of my preparation to go to Canberra was to make up some information to hand to some of the Defence members that I met with.  Now I am so out of practice with this sort of thing that I wasn't sure what to include apart from a brief summary of what we do and how we got started.  In the end I decided that one of the most important messages I had to get across was the feedback we have had from the troops.

When I look back over these messages I find it incredibly humbling but also really uplifting and I know that there are lots of you new followers who would not have seen some of these so I decided to revisit some of the early messages.  

I just wanted to send a massive thank you to everyone one involved with the Aussie Hero Quilts. I am the very proud owner of a lovely quilt and a new laundry bag. The quilt is fantastic, with lots of different pieces of fabric, my favourites are the lizards on one panel and kangaroos and koalas on another. It has really come in handy lately, as the heater has stopped working and the room is freezing during the night. The laundry bag is much better than the one I was using previously. It has seen better days on previous deployments. It really stands out amongst the other plain pillow cases and green bags. I have even started seeing other laundry bags that are similar to mine, so there are a few other guys over here that have them too. It is the best feeling to receive mail, but when it is such a lovely gift from the people back home that do not know you but support you, the feeling is even more special. I will treasure both my quilt and laundry bag and they will follow me everywhere for the rest of my military career. Again, words will never be able to express how special I felt to receive these beautiful gifts. All I can do is to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone involved.

A few nights ago my Padre showed us a beautiful quilt and laundry bag made by you great folk at Aussie Hero Quilts. Not only would I love to have one of these quilts for my bed space over here I would also love to give this to my 11yr old daughter on my return to Australia later in the year. I think she would love it as a keepsake for the time that her Dad was away.

The support of great people like yourself and your group are truly the "little" things that help soldiers get through those times when we think that the world has forgotten about us. Your kindness and generosity is not lost on any of the lads over here and gives our morale a boost that you will never really fathom. We can't thank you enough for your unwavering support.

Thank you very much for the quilt. it got here the other day and it is beautiful.
 Please pass on my thanks to everyone involved.
 It is a great pleasure to receive such a thoughtful gift from home. This was the first care package that I have received that was addressed to me personally by name after 3 deployments. Different from the ones that I have received from the RSL addressed to "a member that is serving" and now holds alot of sentimental value.
 Again thank you so much and I don't think i can put into words how appreciative I am of yours and your teams efforts. I will treasure this item for the rest of this deployment and well into the future when I return to Australia.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this beautiful gift. It is people like you that make the time away from our loved ones a little less painful. This quilt will keep me warm over the next few months until I return home. I look forward to giving it to my son when I return home as I know he will love it just as much as I do. Thank you

Don't know about you but I can't read these without getting a bit of dust in my eyes!

See you tomorrow for Happy Mail Wednesday!

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