Thank you to Bernina and FWQ

A quick announcement.....I have a busy day coming up and another busy one tomorrow so if you want your photos of sent quilts and laundry bags to make it into tomorrow's post of Weekly Dispatches I need to receive them no later than 6pm tonight.

I am off to meet the Captain, Ship's Warrant Officer and Chaplain of HMAS Melbourne tomorrow morning at 0930.  I really enjoy these visits as it really makes it so much easier for Aussie Heroes to do what we do when everyone really understands what we do and how we work.  There is nothing like a face to face meeting to make sure we are all on the same page and to establish a good working relationship.

After visiting HMAS Melbourne I will be heading down to Holsworthy to drop off a batch of quilts and laundry bags to a contact down there who will send them off to the appropriate people for us.  That will make for a long but productive day!

If you are someone who does not follow up on Facebook, make sure you hang in there till the end of this post for some special messages.

During the Australasian Quilt Convention, Bernina supported Aussie Heroes by giving us a GORGEOUS sewing machine to raffle (thank you sooo much) and by running "Because We Care" Workshops.  Please do not underestimate the commitment this required of them.  Each person who attended paid $5, which was basically a donation to Aussie Heroes, and received a kit to make a complete laundry bag.  Greg Alexander, the Managing Director of Bernina, guaranteed to match each $5 paid to make a laundry bag so in effect for every person who sat and made us a laundry bag we ended up with a $10 donation and a really cool laundry bag.  How fabulous was that.

Can you imagine the work involved in preparing kits for around 80 laundry bags?  And all that fabric .... big thanks to XLN who donated all of it.  So generous!  Thank you XLN!

I have spoken to Greg and other members of his wonderful staff and they really enjoyed the experience and found the workshops were often very emotional as those who came to sew shared their experiences and their reasons for wanting to take part.  It was a real feel good exercise for them and I have been told that they loved being involved. I also want to point out that when a company like Bernina attends shows like the Australasian Quilt Convention they are there to sell their product.  They could have sold more sewing machines running other workshops but for them, it wasn't about that.  It was because they care!

Time to show you just a sample of what was made over the course of the show.  I will have to do another post at a later stage as this is but a sample and many of the bags have messages inside and outside from those who sewed to those who will receive them.  I just need to time to go through them and take photos.

And my personal favourite .......

BZ Bernina.  Thanks for caring!

To end off, I wanted to share some messages that were placed on Facebook last night as I know that there are some of you who do not have Facebook and also I wanted these recorded on the blog so that they are not lost to the Aussie Heroes history.   If we send off a Fallen Warrior Quilt I am not really happy with sharing the details on the blog or the Facebook page as I just feel the family deserves their privacy.  Just before ANZAC Day I handed 9 Fallen Warrior Quilts to a chaplain to be handed to some of the families who had lost loved ones and who had not yet received one of our quilts.

Two of those families were kind enough to leave the following messages on our Facebook page last night and I wanted to make sure that you all saw them.

Thank you AHQ on behalf of Mason Edwards family - very kind and heartwarming. You are making a huge difference in the lives of those who are learning to live without their loved one. Keep up the amazing work you're doing!

Today we received this absolutely beautiful quilt from Aussie Hero Quilts (and Laundry Bags). I love seeing pictures of the quilts and bags that these wonderful people make and send to the men and women on deployment and now we have our very own to treasure. We thank you so much, from the bottom of our hearts.

It is a humbling privilege to be able to pass on these quilts to families of our Fallen on behalf of all the wonderful Aussie Heroes volunteers.  I just want to add that I would love to get quilts to any of our families of the 41 if they would like to receive one.  They, or a friend, relative or representative just need to ask as I will not intrude on their lives to chase them up.  All I need is a facebook message or an email to friendsofAHQ@gmail.com

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

Jan-Maree xx