Grati-Tuesday 28 October

G'day!  It is Tuesday and that means time to share some more messages of thanks.
Take a bow ladies and gents, you have done well..... again!
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G'day Maree J,

I am writing in acknowledgement of receiving the quilt and laundry bag that you have made for me. They are both absolutely fantastic and you have met the challenge of my criteria with ease.

I have attached a photo for you and for inclusion on the Aussie Hero Quilts blog to highlight your handy work. 

From your letter, I see that you are constantly involved in the armed services community and I'm glad you have had the ability to continue such affiliation through the Aussie Hero Quilt scheme.

Thank you for thinking off us while we are away from our families. It really does mean a lot.

And again, thank you for these fantastic items.

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Hi Jan-Maree,

What a lovely day today was!  I received the most lovely quilt and laundry bag in the post. The colours and design were just perfect and Gay also included a beautiful hand written letter in the parcel. It has 100% made my day. I have sent Gay a long email thanking her for all of the work she has done on my behalf.

I want to thank you too, for the sensational job you do to coordinate this fabulous project. I’ve seen quite a few of my colleagues receive their quilts too, and the smiles on their faces (and mine) tell the story of how happy these quilts make us. I will be sure to get a photo and send it for your collection.

Thank you from a very happy Aussie in Afghanistan!!

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Hello Janis,

I would like to thank you for making me a fantastic quilt. It is perfect for me….It depicts me so well! The effort you have put into making the quilt is evident. I am so appreciative of your care from back home in Australia, and it was made more meaningful that your daughter is a nurse too. 

I arranged for a photo to be taken with the quilt as a way of thanking you. 

You would not think we need a quilt over here in the desert given the weather reaches 50+ degrees, however everything is thankfully air-conditioned. Walking between facilities really takes it out on you; the heat is debilitating. At night the aircon gets quite cold so your quilt is coming in handy. 

My deployment is for seven months. I am married and have four children, and I miss them terribly. My tour finishes very soon and I cannot wait to be home in Australia with my family. Oh, and I cannot wait to go to the beach!

Thank you for caring of the deployed troops. We appreciate your role in keeping our morale high.

Take care Janis and again, I love my quilt!

Kindest regards 

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Dear Rosemary

I wanted to write a short email to thank you very much for the beautiful quilt you made. I have it sitting on my bed at the moment, keeping me warm when I'm cold at night. While I'm currently living in the desert and it's very hot, I get so cold in the air conditioning that I'm normally rugged up with jumpers, scarves and blankets!

The quilt will be such a lovely reminder of my time here so once again, thank you!

Regards

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Hi Val, 

Firstly, pls excuse my slowness in replying to your letter and post receiving my quilt, laundry bag and goodies. 

To say I was surprised by 1. the quality 2. the thought behind it and the presentation would be an understatement. I read your letter before looking at the quilt and got to the Jamie Whincup signature part of your letter and I was like....no way!! Lets just say that there was a few envious eyes in my sleeping space when I showed everyone :-)

Myself and a couple of others were invited to tour one of the teams. We thought it would be a low budget back of the field team, however on arrival it was 888 racing with Craig Lowdnes and Jamie Whincup. I had photos with them, bit of a chat with them, tours of their cars, checked out their truck and how they set up their cars and rebuild shocks. It was pretty awesome.

Thankyou for your effort and time into making the quilt, laundry bag and selecting the goodies for me. Its a very humbling experience that someone would take that time and effort. I sincerely appreciate it. During the next port, I will take a photo with the quilt

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Dear Gay,

The absolutely perfect quilt and laundry bag that you created for me arrived in the post today! Your handwritten letter was also just lovely, and I was just a bit misty eyed at how lucky I am to have received these beautiful things!! I would have loved to have sent a handwritten letter back to you, but I also wanted to make sure that I could thank you as soon as I could, so an email it is!! (and besides, my handwriting is just terrible!!!)

The detail in your work is just brilliant, the colours are perfect...and that lovely rider cantering away in the middle of the quilt is divine!!  I can close my eyes and imagine it's me!! And the pony grazing on the laundry bag is just lovely, makes me think of my boy back in Oz, doing just that.

I want you to know just how much I appreciate the massive amount of work that must have gone into the quilt and bag, particularly for a lady on a busy working property. I am so grateful to you for the time that you devoted to me, even with a busy family life on the property - that really is a precious gift, thank you so, so much!!

It is getting late here and I need to be up with the sparrows in the morning, so I had better sign off now. Once again, thank you so much for the magnificent gifts you have given me. I will treasure them always.

With warmest regards and my most sincere thanks,

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Jan-Maree, Norma & Nancy

My Aussie hero Quilt arrived today and it is fantastic!! I would like to thank you, Norma and Nancy from Kalgoorlie - Boulder, WA (the makers of my quilt) and the rest volunteers for putting in the time and effort to provide this service for myself and all others that have received one.

At times its easy to get home sick and a bit down whilst deployed, but things like this are the reason why we love our country, the people in it and is why we do what we do.

My sincere thanks to you and your team

Cheers,

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Joan,

    Thank you for the laundry bag!! It has definately put some colour in the tent. As I'm sure you are aware, not much around other than brown. I have about 2 months left before I rotate home and am looking forward to that. My 7 year old son has already put dibbs on the bag.

    Once again thank you for you time and support, it's nice to know people at home are behind us.

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Hello Jean

I love the laundry bag, the colors are great and I'm happy that you have put a surfer, snowboarder and a climber on the bag. I'm very busy at work.  Over here we are working 12 hour days and don't get much time off.  It can also be hard being away from family for such a long time. It feels really good to receive something from home in Australia that's been made just for me. Thank you so much, I'm stoked and you have made my day! Thank you for putting so much effort in and I appreciate the support. 

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Dear Michelle, 

I have been so excited watching other people open their parcels from Aussie Hero Quilts and today.... Today for the first time I got to open the Parcel from you.... and I was left speechless. 

THANK YOU so very very much for your incredible quilt and laundry bag. I'm so super happy and seeing my kids names embroidered at the top was amazing and I teared up a little bit. 

I have to tell you I had a lot of reservations about leaving my family for the first time to come here, but it was what I joined the defence for and I needed to remind myself of that. 

I'm so glad you made my quilt and wrote me that lovely letter. I'm so very grateful for this and can already see my daughter wanting to put it on her own bed at home. 

Thanks again. 

PS - The fantails are a personal favourite of mine and won't last very long. lol :) 

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 Dear Lynn,

Thank you so much for the wonderful quilt which I received in the post yesterday. I was very surprised to receive the parcel because I had not requested anything.

The quilt is perfect!  The ASLAV, tank and kangaroo are so meaningful to me and the Essendon Football Club colours just top it off.  My friend was right about my passions and you ladies have absolutely nailed it.

On behalf of Task Group Taji, I want to thank you for the wonderful work that you and the other volunteers from Aussie Hero Quilts are doing every day.  You really are the unsung heroes.  I wish you could see the smiles on the faces of our men and women when they receive one of your quilts; it’s absolutely priceless!  Your contribution to the morale and well-being of deployed servicemen and women is significant and should be acknowledged more publicly.

I can assure you that unlike our Vietnam Veterans, no contemporary Australian soldier, sailor or airmen would have any doubt that they are returning to a grateful nation.  The work that you and your team do fully reinforces that sense of all important support from the home-front.

Thank you again Lynn for everything that you do. You have certainly put a big smile on my face.  

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Hi Julie - just a quick note to say thanks a heap for the laundry bag, it is lovely workmanship and I appreciate your kind effort.

I got over to the Sinai, Egypt in early August this year and am due to be home Mid August next year. There are only 2 x Aussies who do 12 months, and all the rest do 6 months.

All is going well over here and we have a great team and are lucky enough to work within a multinational force, including members from USA, UK, Canada, France, Italy, Fiji, Columbia, Uruguay, Norway and NZ.

Well once again, thanks very much for the bag, it has been great to use to take my clothes to the laundry. All the best and I hope you are able to make some more laundry bags to make someone else's day like you did mine when it arrived. 

(Also I nearly forgot - I loved getting the lollies and everyone was able to pick out their favourites - mine are the sherbies!)

thanks heaps and hope you enjoy the warm weather coming up, the heat has finally passed here for the summer which is a welcome reprieve.

cheers

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Hi Jean, 

I just wanted to write an email to say thank you very much for the laundry bag and I really like it. 

The bright colours certainly do brighten up the room and make a nice change from camouflage uniforms. 

Thanks again for the time and effort you put into making my laundry bag. I really appreciate it and will make use of it for years to come. 

Regards, 

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Hi Leah,

I just wanted to write an email to say thank you very much for the quilt. 

I very much appreciate the time and effort that you and Flynn put into making it. It is a fantastic quilt and my partner will love it when I get home as it's exactly her style.  We are all very appreciative of the support from home while we are away and I am very thankful for the time and effort that you've put into making the quilt.

Regards and thanks again,

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Hi Marilyn,

Thank you very much for my quilt, its excellent! Thank you also for the treats, I shared them with the rest of the guys.   I got the quilt around 2 weeks ago but haven't had time to send a thank you message.

My job in the army is a fitter armourer, I work on and keep all the weapons functional for everyone here.

Anyway thank you very much again for the quilt, you have done a great job.

Thanks, 

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Hello Rita (Granny Smith).

Thank you so much for the quilt. I received it in the mail only a few minutes ago. Your work is outstanding. I, and all of the others who receive these gifts are truly grateful.

Thank you again for your time, effort and thoughts. I cannot properly explain how much we appreciate these gifts.

Yours sincerely 

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Dear Kate, 

Thank you very much for the awesome Port Adelaide quilt!  It adorns my office over here, and gets commented on by everyone who comes in.  Port didn't have the greatest of years in 2015, but we'll be back stronger next year I hope.  I've played rugby union ever since joining the Army many years ago, but in fact grew up in Adelaide.  My dad's family are all from Port Adelaide, so I've been a keen supporter since I was old enough to be carried to games. 

All the quilts and laundry bags that we've been sent over here are a huge hit.  Everyone who has received one is extremely appreciative - myself included.  We know we are well supported back at home, but actually receiving things like the quilts really does serve as a reminder to everyone that there a lot of people thinking about this and who want to ensure we have a few reminders of home with us.   

Thanks again for the quilt.  I've already munched on the M&Ms and had a few of the instant coffee mixes - very tasty. 

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For a quilt that was made by Lenore M

Jan-Maree,

Thanks for the effort your team put in to supporting those of us that serve our nation. I am pleased to inform you that my quilt and laundry bag have both arrived today. The artistic design is great and a wonderful impression of my two diverse areas.

Thanks again.

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And finally a last word on our Aussie Hero Dinner from Joan.....

Robin and attended our third Annual Dinner for Aussie Hero Quilts (and Laundry Bags) last Saturday. We had a grand time, with good food and great conversation. It set me to thinking why do we do what we do, by we, I mean the people who quilt and the people like me who make laundry bags and Jan-Maree who looks after the logistics. 

I think if we are honest with ourselves we sew because we like it and enjoy what we produce. We can have altruistic feelings that we are providing random acts of kindness to our deployed Australian Defence Forces and there is no doubt we do that. But I do think none of us would do and sew unless we enjoyed what we do, feeling good is an added bonus.

Often in conversations the appreciation felt by the personnel receiving a quilt or laundry bag is discussed and expressed in glowing terms. As sewers when we receive a thank you we are equally pleased.

Last Saturday, BC a commander who has served in many places including Kandahar, spoke and expressed his thanks to Aussie Hero Quilts (and Laundry Bags). He explained to us the appreciation felt by a recipient that someone who does not know them would take the time and effort to make and send a quilt and bag together with a personal letter. More importantly, as far as I am concerned, he explained the level of tension felt by his teams, the level of focus required to do their job and the reluctance to allow anything to intrude on that focus.

 So, we will continue to sew for the pleasure it gives us, for the joy it gives to the recipients and  focus on the fact that our troops are very focused on doing the job that they are asked to do, sometimes in very difficult conditions.

  I would like to express a big Thank You to Jan-Maree and David for their hospitality; a grand time was had by all.

Cheers

Joan 

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

Jan-Maree xx