Just a quickie so to speak

Only a short post tonight as I have a "to do" list as long as my arm and need to get on to it.  

It is midday already - WHERE DID THE MORNING GO?

First up a couple of thank you messages for some laundry bags that have been sent over in some of the boxes we send to the various distributors I have enlisted.

Dear Jan-Maree and Ladies,

I have just received a fantastic blue laundry bag. I would like to pass on my sincerest gratitude to  all of you who have taken the time and effort to make these bags and send them to Afghanistan. I'm a pilot currently working in Afghanistan and I have been surprised with all the dust how quickly I am running all my clothes through the laundry. This bag will be most useful in helping keep order in my living space and is the perfect size to deal with the loads which I quickly accumulate. I am very humbled that your group has thought of us and made this gesture. Thank you very much

Hi

My name is XXXXX and I just received one of your wonderful laundry bags. Thank you so much for taking the time to make them and send them over. They bring a lovely bit of colour to an otherwise green and tan environment!

Once again thank you for the bag and the support

We can always use more laundry bags so if you can't quilt you can always sew one of more laundry bags and contact me for an address to send them to.  I can cope with however many you can make, whether it be one or more.  We have a great coverage of bags throughout the Middle East at the moment but when the current teams come home, they will bring their bags with them and the new teams will be wanting some so there is no need to stop sewing just yet.  

This is a good time to remind you about our ANZAC Day Laundry Bag Challenge.  What you need to do is create one or more laundry bags that fit either one of our two themes - a military themed bag, can be either RAAF, Navy or Army. - or create an Aussie themed laundry bag.  That leaves you loads of options.  I only need to receive photos of the bags for your bags to be elligible for the competition.  No photos will be shared till the "reveal" date though I may have more than one "reveal date" depending on how many we get.  I already have some in my file waiting!  You don't need to hang on to your bags - they can be posted off straight away or you can wait till you have a boxful if that is your preference.

And don't forget - there will be prizes!

Here are just a few pictures of past laundry bags to inspire you!

Just finally before I go, as we have quite a few newbies  (welcome all of you!)  a reminder.  
If you receive a thank you email or letter from your recipient would you please mind sharing it with me.  The messages on the blog are all shared anonymously with all personal information, job descriptions and place names removed.  If more information is shared than normal of if the message is particularly heart warming I will have checked with the author before publishing it.

Sharing the messages encourages those that have not heard from their recipients and it also encourages those who are yet to start sewing for us.  They can see without a shadow of a doubt that what we are doing is meaningful and well received.  Also, once I know a quilt has been received I record that so that I know not to send emails (when I can) to chase it up.  That saves me a lot of time.

If you receive a letter and are not able to scan it or it is too long to scan in its entirity then it would be great if you could type into an email the appropriate portion for me to share.  By now most of you will have read a fair number of the thank you messages so you can probably guess which parts I would share anyway and what I would leave out.

On a different note - 

Just for something to do, Julie Ann calculated that there have been 95 days so far this year (up to last Friday).  That means approximately 3.5 Quilts and 7.5 Laundry bags PER DAY have been made and sent so far this year.

I don't know about you but I am encouraged by that.  

Curses!  I somehow deleted my Aussie Heroes Volunteers email group - well, I know exactly how I did it - I pushed the wrong button at the wrong time!  Grrr.  I think I have reconstructed it.  I have just sent out the list of latest requests.  If you have not received it and you should be on my list please let me know.

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