WOW! Well after last night's post I have been blown away by the response and the huge amount of support. We will have our normal gratitude post on Thursday as I thought it was essential to write a post for all the wonderful new Aussie Hero Friends!
To all the wonderful newbies who jumped on the bandwagon last night and today. You are now eligible to become known as an Aussie Hero Friend. That is what we are collectively called and personally I can think of nothing I would rather be, nor a more wonderful supportive group of people. :-)
I thought I should briefly introduce myself so you know who is running this whole shebang! My name is Jan-Maree, I am a 50 something ex-RAAF and ex-RAN officer of 15 years' service. I live in Sydney with my very tolerant and supportive husband (also ex-RAAF) and our twin sons. If you email, PM or call Aussie Heroes you will get me.
I could not do what I do without the wonderful volunteers and collectively we are called the Aussie Hero Friends. We started operating as Aussie Heroes on 1 Jan 2012 and since then have sent nearly 3000 quilts and 4500 laundry bags to the soldiers, sailors, airmen and defence civilians deployed all over the MIddle East, including our currently deployed ship, HMAS Darwin as well as our Peacekeepers in South Sudan and the Sinai.
What follows is a brief rundown of how things work. Hopefully there is enough info here to get you started.
Requests and how we manage them.
Each Monday I circulate a list of requests to all of the requests I have for quilts and laundry bags. These are passed to me in a variety of ways but basically the members are told to tell me the following
- their full postal address including rank and PM keys (PM Keys is like their service number)
- their email address
- the last full month they are deployed
- and their favourite colour, hobbies and interests.
We ask the latter because I have learned over time that many of the quilters like to have a starting point when making a quilt for someone else and just knowing their favourite colour is not enough.
If you are interested at the very bottom of this post will be the requests we have at the moment but here is an example.
In this example you can see that this fellow has listed three colours, and various interests. Some of my quilters pride themselves on including everything someone lists. That is wonderful but really not necessary. If I can send this fellow a red, black or yellow quilt then I am happy. If it has anything to do with Batman, dinosaurs or any of his other interests on it then that is a bonus. Remember, the vast majority of the people we are sending to are MALE and most likely therefore not quilters so they just tell us whatever they can think of to give us point to work from.
They will appreciate whatever they are sent.
The number 29 is a reference number that applies to this request for the day that this version of the list is circulated only.
The "B" in column three stands for Both a quilt and a laundry bag. You might also see "Q" for quilt only or "LB" for Laundry bag only.
If you see a request on the list and want to take it on you need to copy this entire line and email me. If noone else has taken it on I will send you the member's details and you can get started. Most important that you take note of the deadline for posting and if you are not able to make it you need to let me know. What we do is time critical as we are posting to members who are deployed. If you are late posting they may have left and returned home and may not receive the quilt or laundry bag that you have put your time and effort into.
A little more on Quilts
You are welcome to make quilts that are not tied to a request at any time. Once you have nearly completed a quilt send me a photo and I will send you the details of a recipient to send it to. I do ask for your full name and address, preferably with phone number before give you the details of one of our members though.
The following link will tell you all you need to know about our quilts - size, batting, and some suggestions about what to make. Quilt Specifics
Laundry Bags
If you wish to make laundry bags that would be awesome. These are certainly not the poor cousin to our quilts by any stretch of the imagination. They bring the colour, variety and interest out of the accommodation rooms and are walked around the bases and ships with pride!
You are welcome to look at the request list and choose to make a specific one or you can just make bags and let me know when you are ready to post some off. You can fit 4-6 into a BX2 box depending on the weight of the fabric you are using. You can send them off individually or as a boxful. Just email me with a picture of your bags and I will give you an address to send them to. There is a link to the tutorial for the laundry bag below.
Laundry bag Tutorial
Posting the goodies off
Everything we post is sent using the AFPO system which means that as long as we have an AFPO number on our box then we can post up to 2kg of contents in an Australia Post Bx2 box for free. You can check out our Posting Information for further information. I really appreciate it if you check that link before you post for us for the first time.
Finally some of you might be non-sewers. There are still ways to help. One really big way that would be a great help now is to donate some 3KG and 5KG prepaid satchels. I use them for posting quilts around the country to various quilters for completion. It is the only way I can get as much done as we do. Other ways non-sewers can help are listed on our How to Help page.
As promised here is the request list for this week. Those in PINK are girls and the others are fellows.
B= both quilt and laundry bag (you can opt to make one or the other)
Q= quilt only
LB = laundry bag only
I am asking that quilts and laundry bags from this list go in the mail no later than 4 September but if that does not give you enough time we may be able to negotiate depending on the request.
If any of these requests interest you please let me know via email to friendsofAHQ@gmail.com
Till next time................KEEP SPREADING THE WORD and happy stitching! JMxx
EDIT 26 August - NOTE these are now OLD requests but they will still give you some ideas of what is being asked for. JMxx
To all the wonderful newbies who jumped on the bandwagon last night and today. You are now eligible to become known as an Aussie Hero Friend. That is what we are collectively called and personally I can think of nothing I would rather be, nor a more wonderful supportive group of people. :-)
I thought I should briefly introduce myself so you know who is running this whole shebang! My name is Jan-Maree, I am a 50 something ex-RAAF and ex-RAN officer of 15 years' service. I live in Sydney with my very tolerant and supportive husband (also ex-RAAF) and our twin sons. If you email, PM or call Aussie Heroes you will get me.
I could not do what I do without the wonderful volunteers and collectively we are called the Aussie Hero Friends. We started operating as Aussie Heroes on 1 Jan 2012 and since then have sent nearly 3000 quilts and 4500 laundry bags to the soldiers, sailors, airmen and defence civilians deployed all over the MIddle East, including our currently deployed ship, HMAS Darwin as well as our Peacekeepers in South Sudan and the Sinai.
What follows is a brief rundown of how things work. Hopefully there is enough info here to get you started.
Requests and how we manage them.
Each Monday I circulate a list of requests to all of the requests I have for quilts and laundry bags. These are passed to me in a variety of ways but basically the members are told to tell me the following
- their full postal address including rank and PM keys (PM Keys is like their service number)
- their email address
- the last full month they are deployed
- and their favourite colour, hobbies and interests.
We ask the latter because I have learned over time that many of the quilters like to have a starting point when making a quilt for someone else and just knowing their favourite colour is not enough.
If you are interested at the very bottom of this post will be the requests we have at the moment but here is an example.
Black Yellow Red Batman Jurrasic Park Navy Barney the Dinosaur Beer Basketball |
29
|
B
|
In this example you can see that this fellow has listed three colours, and various interests. Some of my quilters pride themselves on including everything someone lists. That is wonderful but really not necessary. If I can send this fellow a red, black or yellow quilt then I am happy. If it has anything to do with Batman, dinosaurs or any of his other interests on it then that is a bonus. Remember, the vast majority of the people we are sending to are MALE and most likely therefore not quilters so they just tell us whatever they can think of to give us point to work from.
They will appreciate whatever they are sent.
The number 29 is a reference number that applies to this request for the day that this version of the list is circulated only.
The "B" in column three stands for Both a quilt and a laundry bag. You might also see "Q" for quilt only or "LB" for Laundry bag only.
If you see a request on the list and want to take it on you need to copy this entire line and email me. If noone else has taken it on I will send you the member's details and you can get started. Most important that you take note of the deadline for posting and if you are not able to make it you need to let me know. What we do is time critical as we are posting to members who are deployed. If you are late posting they may have left and returned home and may not receive the quilt or laundry bag that you have put your time and effort into.
A little more on Quilts
You are welcome to make quilts that are not tied to a request at any time. Once you have nearly completed a quilt send me a photo and I will send you the details of a recipient to send it to. I do ask for your full name and address, preferably with phone number before give you the details of one of our members though.
The following link will tell you all you need to know about our quilts - size, batting, and some suggestions about what to make. Quilt Specifics
Laundry Bags
If you wish to make laundry bags that would be awesome. These are certainly not the poor cousin to our quilts by any stretch of the imagination. They bring the colour, variety and interest out of the accommodation rooms and are walked around the bases and ships with pride!
You are welcome to look at the request list and choose to make a specific one or you can just make bags and let me know when you are ready to post some off. You can fit 4-6 into a BX2 box depending on the weight of the fabric you are using. You can send them off individually or as a boxful. Just email me with a picture of your bags and I will give you an address to send them to. There is a link to the tutorial for the laundry bag below.
Laundry bag Tutorial
Posting the goodies off
Everything we post is sent using the AFPO system which means that as long as we have an AFPO number on our box then we can post up to 2kg of contents in an Australia Post Bx2 box for free. You can check out our Posting Information for further information. I really appreciate it if you check that link before you post for us for the first time.
Finally some of you might be non-sewers. There are still ways to help. One really big way that would be a great help now is to donate some 3KG and 5KG prepaid satchels. I use them for posting quilts around the country to various quilters for completion. It is the only way I can get as much done as we do. Other ways non-sewers can help are listed on our How to Help page.
As promised here is the request list for this week. Those in PINK are girls and the others are fellows.
B= both quilt and laundry bag (you can opt to make one or the other)
Q= quilt only
LB = laundry bag only
I am asking that quilts and laundry bags from this list go in the mail no later than 4 September but if that does not give you enough time we may be able to negotiate depending on the request.
If any of these requests interest you please let me know via email to friendsofAHQ@gmail.com
Till next time................KEEP SPREADING THE WORD and happy stitching! JMxx
EDIT 26 August - NOTE these are now OLD requests but they will still give you some ideas of what is being asked for. JMxx
Purple,
sports
|
2
|
B
|
blue
and dark purple american football and NRL
|
3
|
B
|
Aqua, Basketball,
Computer Gaming, Dirt Rally Racing
|
5
|
B
|
Purple, Motor Sports, Movies
|
6
|
B
|
Enjoy sport, AFL – Hawks, or favorite colour blue
|
7
|
B
|
Green, lifting weights/sporty activities (i.e soccer)
|
8
|
Q
|
blue and purple, my family, wife and children, and motorcycle
riding
|
9
|
B
|
Green,fast cars, loud music and nauticalia.
|
11
|
B
|
Blue. Fishing
|
13
|
B
|
Blue- Soccer, BRONCOS!, Surfing and the beach.
|
14
|
B
|
Yellow &
purple/ paddle boarding and running.
|
15
|
B
|
Canberra Raiders
(lime green, royal blue, yellow and white)
|
16
|
B
|
Black or Red-
Cars, Holden and HSV (Holden Special Vehicle)V8 Super
|
17
|
B
|
Basketball Miami
Heat
|
18
|
B
|
Purple/ mountain
climbing/traveling
|
19
|
B
|
Blue, Black,
Orange/music, (producing and DJ-ing), golf, cricket
|
20
|
B
|
blue, skydiving and navy aviation
|
21
|
B
|
Navy blue, house renovations, gardening,
golf, family
|
22
|
B
|
blue surfing.
|
23
|
B
|
blue :
motorsport, motorbikes, travel, fitness
|
24
|
B
|
Blue and red, Rugby League, Surfing/beach
|
26
|
B
|
Blues hobbies Surfing interests. Turtles
|
27
|
B
|
Black/ (Penrith
Panthers), fishing and camping.
|
28
|
B
|
Black Yellow Red
Batman Jurrasic Park Navy Barney the Dinosaur Beer Basketball
|
29
|
B
|
Blue or purple,
fishing and all water activities
|
30
|
Q
|
Basketball,
Gaming Technology, Blue
|
32
|
Q
|
AFL - Port
Adelaide, Music, Sports, Gym Green
|
33
|
Q
|
NRL, Super Rugby,
Melbourne Storm, QLD Reds, Purple, Red
|
34
|
Q
|
cars, fitness AFL, Carlton navy & white
|
35
|
Q
|
motorbikes, NRL
maroon, yellow, white
|
36
|
B
|
Computers, Cars,
AFL, North Melbourne Blue
|
37
|
B
|
books, gaming social interaction, Azure
|
38
|
B
|
motorbikes,
cars, Diablo 3, gaming, motorsports, bundy rum, blue, orange, aqua
|
39
|
Q
|
Sailing, Cycling Sydney Swans, WW 2 history. Yellow
|
40
|
B
|
car, games anime blue
|
41
|
Q
|
Golf and Rugby Canterbury Bulldogs, blue
|
42
|
B
|
soccer, games,
sports sports blue, red
|
43
|
B
|
cars, rc, pc cars blue
|
44
|
B
|
4x4, games IT red
|
45
|
Q
|
games, cars IT blue
|
46
|
Q
|
sport, fitness sports, cars green, black, white
|
47
|
Q
|
diving,
electronics yellow, hot pink
|
48
|
Q
|
Car restoration Dancing Yellow
|
49
|
B
|
Online gaming Computers Blue
|
50
|
B
|
Gym Spearfishing/soccer Blue
|
51
|
B
|
Cars/sports Blue/Black
|
52
|
B
|
BMW, all things
F1 and Hugo Boss. Geelong Football Club
- these suggestions submitted by a good mate- love that he picked out
Hugo Boss J
|
55
|
Q
|
Loves the snow
|
56
|
B
|
Black and Gold
of the West Tigers. fishing, motor bike riding, trail bikes
|
59
|
B
|
Loving that you got a good response Jan Maree.
ReplyDelete