Busy, busy day today but had to share these with you first. How awesome are these pictures.
These are the first two pictures airbrushed by Brian. His wife, Helen, is one of our quilters and after seeing what she does and how the troops respond, he wanted to see if he could contribute. These are his first two offerings and I think they are fabulous. They have been airbrushed and then, according to Helen, treated, then washed and dried several times to make them suitable for the inclusion in a quilt.
They are about 24" across and I am absolutely thrilled with them.
So, why so busy today? Firstly Helen and her friend, also called Helen are here cutting up two rolls of batting for me and folding it to store away in the shelves for quilts to come. Once they get those done they will be cutting backing fabrics for me as well and folding those to fill the shelves that are looking pretty empty at the moment.
Aussie Heroes could not function for long, or achieve anywhere near as much as it does, without wonderful volunteers like Helen and Helen who are happy to come here and do some of the necessary, but not very exciting jobs, that need to be done. Cutting up a whole roll of batting and cutting lengths of backing fabrics from heavy rolls of fabric is not easy and certainly not a one person job. I am very grateful for this sort of help.
Tonight Lisa K is also coming to give me a hand. Those who came to our Dinner in October brought along small parcels wrapped in Christmas paper that will be sent off to the troops.
In addition I have a wonderful lady who gives me a Coles Voucher every month and that has been spent on lots of goodies to go with the Christmas goodies. One of our quilters, Jacqui, couldn't make it to the dinner so she sent me some cash and a number of people who were too far away to attend also sent goodies - sorry I am not sure I can remember all the names but you know who you are!
Here are some of the things that will be going in the Christmas boxes..... I can't show you all the goodies as that will spoil some of the surprises......
You can't pack a Christmas box without tinsel - just a reminder that any boxes you send off from now could easily have tinsel, decorations or some other Christmas goodies tucked inside.
These little packs of chips make great packing. I still need to keep the boxes under 2kg and these fill in the holes just nicely.
It is so great that Halloween falls around the time that we start to make up some Christmas boxes. I have been taking advantage of the specials with all these chocolates.... I will be very glad to get them out of my house!!!
These are just some of the wrapped parcels that quilters brought or sent along to the dinner. Some have already been sorted into boxes.
More lollies, many donated, and Tim Tams!! Again, Hooray for specials!!!
Finally, quilters are crafty people and not only quilt but can turn their hand to other crafts as well.
Michele used her embroidery machine to create these awesome gingerbread men.... and check out the ribbon she used! Just fabulous!
Gail crochetted these little granny square Christmas stockings! How cute.
Mae also sent in a selection of gorgeous hand made Christmas decorations. These look great sparkling in the light. I can imagine them on a tree!
We don't usually do Christmas Care Packages but it seemed a nice change to bring Christmas parcels instead of making laundry bags or blocks for the dinner. I don't know exactly how many boxes we will end up with in the long run but I can guarantee these boxes will be going everywhere from Afghanistan and Iraq to some of our peacekeepers as well as to members of our Air Task Group and others. I will keep you posted as much as I can without spoiling the surprise.
Till next time..................keep spreading the word and happy stitching!
Jan-Maree xx
Beautiful post!
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