Grati-Tuesday 2 June 15

Before the thank you messages for this week a quick message from Joan....

Patches and Pins.

Please note that all ordered patches and pins have now been mailed. This includes those eaten by the Post Office monster.

Please allow a few days for delivery and  do let me know if your order does not arrive.

Joan Carter

And now for the thank you messages, enjoy!

.....

Dear Leanne,

I am an Air Force Corporal Communications Technician and I am currently deployed on operations in the Middle East. I received the two amazing packages form you on the Tuesday just gone. I wanted to write to you and thank you for the fantastic surprises that were in the two boxes.

Firstly, I cant thank you enough for sending not only the amazing quilt! and laundry bag!, but all the little goodies that went along with it. I absolutely love the chocolate, nuts and coffee satchels, so thank you so much for that. I love the crossword book, the facial wipes and exfoliating pad are so handy!. 

The package also arrived right in time for the State of Origin game which meant the balloons and NSW headwear thingie were great! (unfortunately we lost though)

Finally, I am just over the moon with the Quilt and laundry bag! I cant praise you enough for the amazing design you came up with to incorporate the Newcastle Knights and the NSW State of Origin blues onto the quilt. I LOVE IT!. Everyone here has seen and commented on how great it is (even the Queenslanders). I immediately sent photos home to my family to show them and they all commented on how lucky I was to receive such a special item. I am unsure as to your background with making these fantastic quilts and laundry bags, but please accept my absolute praise for the amazing quality shown in the final result. My expectations were very much surpassed when I first opened the box to see the contents. I can not believe you actually made the Knights and NSW logo's that are in the top and bottom corners of the Quilt, they are done perfectly and for a minute or so I thought they were an authentic match. The Quilt now brightens up my otherwise dull room here and I can not wait to take it home to show my family and friends. It really will be a special memory and I once again thank you for all of the items you sent me. 

And yes I blew up the balloons and have decorated our workspace with them. The guys are keeping them up even after Origin as it adds a bit of colour and fun to the area. The Hat thingie is great as well! I am a very passionate fan and I will definitely wear it every year from now on. 

You sound like a lovely lady Leanne, I really appreciated the letter you wrote and wish you all the best. It sure is great to hear from people back home and to see the sheer effort some people put in to bringing a smile to our deployed members faces. You truly made my day here and I cant thank you enough. 

I have a few photos to show you of when I opened the package and were holding the quilt. Hopefully you can open the image. 

Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you or the Aussie Quilt organisation. If not, I hope this letter has shown my gratitude for your amazing efforts.

Kindest Regards, 

......

The lovely lady sent a thank you email last week and followed it up with a photo of her quilt made by Sophie.  The following is a snippet of the accompanying email...

A few of the other quilts for the other guys have started coming in, they love them. As a girl here,  it's pretty amusing to sit back and watch them open their quilts and see their reactions. They forget to be "manly" for a moment and are like excited little kids!  It's really good though,  they are a massive hit. 

.....

Dear Joan & Robin

I am writing to thank you for the beautiful laundry bag that you sent me while I am

deployed here in the Middle East. My Grandmother and Great Grandmother used to

do lots of sewing when I was younger, so I was very excited at the prospect of getting

a bag made just for me.

Nan (my Great Grandmother) can't see well enough to sew anymore, but I always

think of her when I see beautiful craftsmanship because she was so particular about

everything being perfect. I remember she used to make me unpick rows and rows of

knitting if I ever dropped a stitch while she was teaching me to knit. My Grandmother

has been pretty busy looking after Nan so she hasn't had time to knit or sew lately

either.

So far I have been very busy since I started my deployment. I've had to learn a lot

about my position here because it is a little bit different to what I do at home. I have

also had to meet a lot of new people because a big part of my job is networking. I am

enjoying my deployment so far - mainly because I work with a lot of really good

people. If I am having a tough day they support me, and if they are having a hard day

I try to support them.

I hope you are doing well, thank you for your support. It was lovely to hear that your

son is in the Navy - some of my closest friends are Navy and they are deployed at the

moment too.

Kind Regards

.....

Morning/ Afternoon Pennie, 

You work is out standing' yes it is for my granddaughter when I arrive home. I put it on my bed for a photo and sent it to her.  She is over the moon and thinks her Pop is the best pop in the world and it is down to your hard work and Mary's.   It is great that you are playing a part in the happiness of the defence members that are deployed as I have seen nothing but happiness in the eyes of deployed personnel when they have been showing off their quilts. 

This is my third deployment to the Middle East and serving our nation makes myself and my family so proud. But without people like your team thanking our hard work we would just be the guys and girls you pass on the street. 

I am in charge of supply warehouse that has little time to relax due to the store/equipment moving through at a speed that is up and down. The tempo is crazy at times but my staff are very focused and from all over Australia. 

I hope the nursing role you play is as rewarding as the quilt making because both roles in there own way are very important to the everyday Aussies you assist at home and off our shores. 

Once again thank you very much, my staff loved your treats too.

.....

For Lynn and Debbie

I received your AMAZING quilt today whilst over here deployed in The Middle East and it truly brought me so much joy. Wow wow wow wow ... It is such a personal and precious gift. You have captured everything that I love in such detail ... Just phenomenal. A thousand thank you's would not even hit the appreciation mark. Hopefully the photo could do it justice. God bless you ... You really do make such a difference in all of our lives through your time and talent!

.....

Hi Jeanne,

Thank you kindly for the wonderful Laundry Bag. It arrived today safe and sound. It is better than I’d expected and I really appreciate the time and effort you put in to it. Today is actually my youngest daughters 1st birthday and your gift cheered me up on a day i’d rather be at home with her to celebrate.

Whilst you said in your lovely card that it may not be all things I requested, they were merely suggestions and I was always going to be appreciative regardless of what my Aussie Quilt Laundry Bag looked like. 😊

I’m glad you included an ANZAC poppy, in this the centenary year and I love your interpretation of the Air Force logo.

Once again, thank you for the time and effort you have devoted. Long after I return from my deployment it will be a great reminder of my time serving Australia overseas and how grateful the Australian public is.

.....

Good Morning Jan-Maree,

I received my quilt yesterday afternoon safe and sound :)

Pennie did an amazing job and I absolutely LOVE it. 

Thank you so much for the time and effort all the lovely people at Aussie Hero Quilts put into these quilts for us.

I know mine will be treasured for a very long time.

Thank you again.

My Kindest Regards,

.....

For Julie H,

I was returning back to the ship last night after a short break ashore and had your package sitting on my rack with no clue what it was till I opened it. I would like to thankyou for making me a laundry bag something I can use onboard and at home, I love the owls and the colour! Also love the work that the girls are doing! It does increase the morale around the ship with people getting packages from back in Aus and seeing all the crazy, cool designs.

Regards,

.....

Hi Jeanne,

I was delighted to receive the laundry bag you made for me in the mail today, you have no idea how much easier it will be to identify my laundry from hundreds of others, I especially love the colours and artistic design, it's very me  .

We are all very appreciative of the fine work you do & even though I only play a small roll in this outfit I still miss my family back home and it is these little kindnesses that make it more bearable.

Thank you,

Regards,

.....

For Joan

From one Mum to another, I wanted to thank you for your lovely laundry bag that you have made for me.

I truly do love it. It brightens up my room, and my day.

I am a SGT in the Airforce. My profession is Logistics. This is my third deployment to the Middle East and my first Laundry Bag!  I have three children, they are 18, 15 and 13. So happy Mothers Day and a huge Thank You again.

.....

Dear Joan and Robin

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness in making and sending an

Aussie Heroes Laundry Bag. The cherry blossom pattern is beautiful and

I will be hanging it up for all to see. It is wonderful to have something

personal when everything else is uniform and rather drab!

Your note said that it was a lovely autumn day in Sydney when you sent

the parcel. Since then I hear that there have been huge storms, I hope that

you and your family were not affected. It is very hot in the Middle East

and hard to imagine quite so much rain at the moment.

As I'm sure your son has told you from his experience in the RAN, on

deployment the days tend to blur together. Receiving anything from home

has a huge impact on morale and your package put a smile on my face.

Yours sincerely,

.....

This fellow is posted overseas and deployed on a foreign ship for 12 months. He had to wait till he came into port with the Aussies to get his mail from Australia.

G'day JM,

So I caught up with the Aussies here in XXXXX today and they had a great big bag of mail for me, including a fabulous quilt from Leanne W! A really wonderful piece with a lot of thoughtful touches to it. 

I will get a decent picture in the next few days by the ship for you and send a letter back to Leanne, but just wanted to say thanks very much for all of your efforts. It's lovely to receive personal handmade gifts like this.

This trip has certainly been an interesting one, but it's been long! This time in 47 days I'll be safely home with the family. We'll have a few weeks leave in Sydney and Adelaide before moving back to the UK for the last 6 months of the posting.

All for now. Keep up the great work!

.....

Hi Su

Your gift, the North Sydney Bears Quilt and bag was very special to me.  From the bottom on my heart I thank you.  As I am the busiest worker on the ship, I apologise for my reply.

Once again, thank you.

......

G'day Lynne,

Firstly I would like to thank you and Robin for my awesome quilt! It is exactly what I wanted and I can't wait to take it home with me as a memento to my tour and to the amazing support we have received from so many generous people back home like yourself. 

As for this trip, it has been quite enjoyable to be honest. Especially with the support we have been receiving from people back home. It's not quite the "seeking out and closing with the enemy," as a rifleman's true role is. But at the end of the day any tour serving our great country is a good one. 

Your question as to the popularity of blue quilts being requested is actually quite a simple one. Our unit colour in 1RAR is Garter Blue. 

Thank you very much again for my quilt,

.....

Dear Sue P,

THANKYOU! so much for my beautiful quilt. it truly made my day when it arrived and it is perfect. I have used it for my meditation and it sits on my bed during the day. I will make sure I use it all the time; I used to have a habit of saving things for good and they would live in the cupboard for that 'good' day whenever that would be. Lovely to hear about you and your family. I am a Victorian girl so know the area that you live in and it is a great part of the country. I have always dreamed of having a beach house so hopefully one day can do something similar to you. Things over here are very busy at the moment. There are a lot of us here and people moving about so that keeps me and my crew busy as I am working with the Hercules aircraft so we move 'stuff' around. The base is really comfortable and I have my own room which is a huge bonus.  It is just nice to get quiet time when you need it. We had a lovely ANZAC day and I felt very proud to be here for the 100yr anniversary. It is starting to get hotter and before long it will be up to 50 degrees during the day....thank god for our aircon!! Anyway I am off now to start night shift. Thank you again for the quilt and your support, it means a great deal to us!! 

Best wishes

.....

Good Afternoon Sophie, 

I have just received your wonderful laundry bag. Thank you very much. I am often too tired to do any washing promptly so another bag will help me greatly. Coupled with how appealing it is to look at and its high quality, I will treasure it for years to come. I have spread the food around to everyone, and we all are enjoying it very much. Especially the lollies. Items such as these drastically improve morale, and remind all that we are not forgotten by those at home. People like yourself are the reason we come here to do the jobs we do. Thank you very much, never underestimate how much good you're doing.  

Big thanks from the whole team here :)

....

Well I am off to meet stand on the wharf when HMAS Success comes home tomorrow morning. Hope to see a few of you there.

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

Jan-Maree