Grati-Tuesday 3 September

Dear Jan-Maree, 

Thank-you so much to you and your team at Aussie Hero Quilts for my beautiful Quilt, Laundry bag and Care packages! I was so surprised when the mail came and I had 5 parcels waiting for me!

The time and effort that you and your team go to to provide us these beautiful gifts is amazing and I'm sure everyone who has received one of your quilts or laundry bags is very thankful!

We are coming to the end of our stay over here with 2 months remaining (4 months down!) and there are colourful quilts and laundry bags everywhere on the ship which really brightens up the place and our long days out here! 

Now I have my own quilt the Doc can rest assured that I won't pinch hers! hahaha 

Please keep up the good work, it really does lift everyone's spirits! Here are a couple of photos of me... It looks like Christmas in the Sickbay!! :) 

This beautiful quilt was made by Kim M, one of the wonderful quilters who donate their time and skills to quilt for us.

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Hi Stephanie,

Last port I received your quilt which you made for me. I'd like to thank you greatly for making it I was very excited when I opened it. The colours were right and I have actually used it a few times as some nights on the ship get cold because of the air conditioners constantly going. Its funny outside the temperature is around 30-40 and inside some of the compartments are below 10!! I saw XXXXX's quilt and he is happy and proud of his as I am. Not many people support the Penrith Panthers and mine is very unique I think.

I will be home in late XXXXX and cant wait to show my family my quilt as they support the Panthers as well. 

Below is a link to our Newcastle news web page where you can check out the ship, the crew and what we have been up to.  :-)

http://www.navy.gov.au/media-room/publications/newcastle-news Newcastle News Web Page (Check it out here)

Once again thank you for my quilt and all the support you show to the deployed arm forces of Australia.

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Hello Su,

Thank you very much for the lovely quilt that you took the time to make for me. I received it just the other day I think it's awesome!!

I was surprised to see XXXX as the sending address as XXXX High school is where I went as a youngster, I actually grew up in XXXX and am very familiar with Fruchocs!! what a pleasant surprise it was to have you make it in my home town of Adelaide.

I have been lucky enough to already have had a laundry bag made for me thank you for the offer.

Once again Thank you very much for you warm and kind generosity.

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This quilt was made by Louise and quilted by Stephanie T

Good Afternoon Jan-Maree,

Thank you so much for my quilt!  I love it!  Such a beautiful design.

Please pass on my thanks to everyone involved :)
 

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Dear Sue,

I am a soldier serving overseas and I just received the football laundry bag you sent, thank you very much for spending the time to make such a useful gift. I received it on Father's Day which was great.

Kind regards
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Dear Sue,

               

I received a laundry bag made with love and care from you and wish to pass on my gratitude for the hard work and obvious care you put into it. It has a Batman design and I am using it as we speak and will pass it onto my 7 year old son, Jake, when I return and it will become part of the items I give to him to keep for the future and remember when I was deployed. I have been here twice before but never received a laundry bag. They certainly come in use I can tell you. Anything from Australia is most welcome here, especially hand made items such as this. It reminds me of when my mother used to knit me jumpers, beanies and even slippers!

So, thanking you once again for your wonderful gesture and support and from all of us over here, we thank you sincerely.

Please take care.
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Hello Elizabeth, (that is Liz to us)

I am currently Jan-Maree's contact "here" for Aussie Hero Quilts, as such I dispense all the laundry bags, Quilts and goodies to the guys. As I'm sure your husband can testify to the fact that while on deployment it is common for all of us to go through times of loneliness, due factors like missing Friends, Parents, Children and Beloved Partners. Although nothing but our eventual return home will full eleviate these feelings, we have facilities and people who help all of us along the way.

The Aussie Hero Quilts organisation is one of those fore-mentioned ways that brings us that little bit closer to home. Although it may seem small to out-siders the gifts and letters that we receive from people like yourself  is invaluable to our morale and enhances the overall experience of all the men/ women here.

 I am pleased to inform you that I am the recipient of the beautiful Australian themed quilt which arrived today.  For this I say "Thank you" It looks fantastic and brightens up the room. 

The racing car laundry bag has found a home with one of the SPRs (Name for Private equivalent engineer) in our Troop. It's interesting how the laundry bags help here. Not only does it make it a thousand times easier to identify our laundry among the mountains of white bags, it is also a discussion point. As you can imagine sometimes conversations get a little bit stale here and the flow of new accessories (lack of a better word) helps to keep it going.

Once again I would like to thank you for the role you play.   It helps me, and more importantly, my mates. 

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G'day Jan-Maree,                         
I would like to thank you for the quilt that I received from you.  It makes me a proud Aussie soldier to receive gifts like this from fair dinkum Aussies like yourself who give up their time to make our lives over here that little bit better.
On behalf of my soldiers and myself, I thank you for the big effort you and other great Aussies do for the soldiers over here.
Once again thank you for the quilt which I will  take home with me on completion of my deployment to show my family and keep as a memento.
Yours Sincerely 

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Stephanie

        I recently received the beautiful quilt that you made, it is absolutely fantastic. I am sure my 2 boys will be fighting over it when I get home, they are 2 and 5 and big fans of Thomas. I and all the Sailors and officers of HMAS Newcastle appreciate the work that you and all the members of Aussie Quilts do, just to make home and our families just that little more bearable. It is an absolute kind thing that you have done for me, putting so much time an effort in to making the quilt, and I really appreciate it. So Thank you.

Regards
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Good Morning Jan-Maree, 
I have finally received my hero quilt, Thank you and your worker quilt bees for all the hard work you do for all of us over here.
We truly appreciate the efforts, Its beautiful and if you could pass on my thanks to Michelle C that would be great.
Have a great day :-) 

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The following quilt was made by Lynn and Quilted by Kim B but there is a bit of a story behind it. This fellow is one of those that we send boxes of laundry bags too.   Now I don't want to embarrass him but suffice to say he is an all round good bloke and I am really glad that he liked his quilt.  

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THANKYOU SOOOO MUCH FOR MY QUILT !!!!

I honestly don't know how you do it.... It is so me it's not funny !!
It has everything I asked for !!
The kangaroos in the sunset reminds me of my grandparents farm.
Our house backs onto bushland also, and what did we wake up to EVERY morning ...? Kookaburras !!! Uncanny or what ?

I have hung it up in the office to show it off !!!
I am so happy with it :-)
I want to hang it in the office for a couple of weeks before I start using it coz it gets cold here soon and I will need it. 

But there is more to the story.  Our Deployed Quilter and this fellow are colleagues and, I suspect, friends.  She dobbed on him and told me that he had not used his laundry bag but had kept it on display from the moment he received it!  Cute.  I also suspected that when he went home recently he would give it to his daughter and so he would be without a laundry bag again.  A lot of fellows do this to give their children something special as a reminder of their Dad (or Mum).  

Our Deployed Quilter also let slip, no doubt rather deliberately, that the service nickname for people who perform their role is "Money Honey"!!!  Can you guess where I am going with this?  It was just too good an opportunity for me to pass it up!!!  I just had to make another laundry bag. Actually I prepared the laundry bag - did the applique and pieced the outer of the bag and one of the lovely ladies who came along to the laundry bag sewing day At Hobbysew finished it off for me!  I packaged it up and sent it off and it arrived today!  I know we normally only give one bag per person but this fellow is a huge help to me so he deserved it.  Here is his response!  LOL

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Thank you for the second laundry bag :-) 

I did use my laundry bag before I took it home. I am back using my issued one. Its about half the size and is not double material. So I have been back to washing every day or at the most every second day. I will be using this one straight away. This one is not going straight to the pool room LOL 

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Now sadly I did not remember to take a picture of the whole bag  - just the applique but I think it is enough for you to get the idea!  :-D

Another friend of mine sent me a photo of one of the laundries in Kandahar - check out all those Aussie Hero Laundry Bags! I think we have made a difference guys!

:-D

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