Grati-Tuesday 12 Feb 19

Hey all,

How awesome is this photo.. we love getting these group photos! Thanks guys! So good to see your quilts on display like this. 

Much appreciated.

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Hello Ruth,

I was the one who received the Collingwood LB around Xmas time.I hope you and your family had a great Xmas and New Year’s break J

A big ‘thank-you’ for the LB, it was just what ‘the doc ordered’, so to speak.

You mentioned in your note that it was hard to make, as you are a Power supporter…ha ha. Well I won’t hold that against you, as I am not Collingwood either, my wife Michelle is though.

I’m a WCE fan (probably worse right J)and as my wife is Collingwood, I thought it would be a great idea to have a LB that would remind me of winning the cup in 2018…with an added bonus! It would always feel good to be able to throw dirty laundry into a Collingwood LB ..right ha! 

Sorry, too much ?

Anyways, thanks again for the awesome bag. The work you ladies do is amazing…It will definitely remind me of my deployment and the 2018 win, for many years to come.

Greatly appreciated and as mentioned in your note, just wanted you to know it did brighten my day, as I’m sure it did when your daughter was on deployment J

All the best and kind regards,

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Dear Lynn and Wendy,

Thank you kindly for the wonderful quilt you made for me, there is no doubt this 'Brisbane Lions' themed gift will serve my family and I well for many years to come.

I've been deployed for over five months now. This is my sixth deployment and the fifth as a father and husband; I have served in Somalia - Africa, East Timor, Solomon Islands, Sinai - Egypt (On the border to Gaza) and Afghanistan; I am again back in the Middle East. I have spent 32 months of my life in an operationally deployed environment with 26 of those months separated from my family. My wife is also a current serving member of the Australian Army; we have four sons ranging in ages from 26 to 16; my eldest son also serves in the Army. My second eldest son did serve in the Army however he has since separated from the military and is now attending Edith Cowan University in Perth. My two youngest sons are attending boarding school, which they both thoroughly love. Prior to my deployment, I served at the School of Infantry at Singleton, New South Wales. When I return back to Australia early this year, I'll take a few weeks leave then head on posting to the United States of America.

Other than our family adoration for the Lions football club, we also travel extensively both domestically and overseas.

I hope this festive season was all that you wished for; thank you for all that you do for our service personnel deployed. Your kind thoughts and gifts do help and are sincerely appreciated, the design and detail are impeccable.

Thank you 'Field Girls'.....

Kind regards,

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Hello Sue,

I received your hand made quilt and laundry bag. I want to thank you so much, I absolutely love them both!! I especially love how you sewed a chocolate bar and a bench press for the gym!! I have already put both to good use, the quilt is on my bed and I sleep with it every night and the laundry bag I used daily. I have also had multiple compliments off the other females saying how beautiful they both are!!! I love the bag of goodies, and once again have used most of the things already. Thank you so much ☺.

A bit about me, I'm 26 and am one of the medics aboard. I love my job so being away isn't bad. I'm from NSW and have my mum and dad, 2 brothers and a German Shepherd at home. I do miss my family but at the same time I have a great sea family ☺.

Thank you again I hope to hear from you soon.

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Hello Beverly,

I just wanted to thank you for the quilt and let you know that it was actually received! It is truly awesome, you really captured the themes I provided.

I received the parcel the day before I left the Middle East and unfortunately had no room in my baggage so had to mail it to myself back in Australia hence the delay in my reply.

It was also nice to hear a little bit about yourself and your family, a very strong Air Force affiliation! I hope you all managed to have an enjoyable Christmas and I wish you all the best for 2019. I missed x-mas/new years, but managed three weeks of school holidays with my wife and two kids 12 and 8 before they went back to school today. The Gymnastics, Rugby and Ninja Warriors are essentially the sports both of them love doing so the Quilt will hold special memories for the whole family.

Once again I would like to thank you for your good wishes and support and for also taking the time and effort to sew such a creative and high quality quilt—it really is appreciated! Also thanks for the lolly snakes – because I didn’t open package until I got home I didn’t get much of a look in with the kids around!!

Regards,

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Dear Clarissa,

Thank you so very much for the lovely laundry bag you made for me. I absolutely love it, and you managed to get all my favourites on it. Teapots, flowers, and cats (in their secret area).

The work that the volunteers do with Aussie Hero Quilts is just amazing. I have personally seen the reaction from people here when their laundry bags/quilts arrive, and it is truly special. I have dabbled a bit all sorts of craft, rubber stamping, card making, candle making, folk art painting, knitting, and cross stitch, but not very good at any of it.

I am a Medic/nurse in the RAAF.  My husband is also in the RAAF, so is our son who is 26 on Sunday. 

We have been moving around with the RAAF since 1989, living in Tindal, Canberra, Darwin, Sale, Adel, Sale again, Adel again, Wagga, and Richmond. 

In May last year I was lucky enough to of taken 15 WW2 veterans to the opening of the International Bombing Command Centre in Lincoln UK. It was an amazing and humbling experience. We travelled through a lot of England going to RAF bases that these young men were posted too. If your dad was apart Bomber Command at all, I would be happy to email some photos through.

Once again thank you so very much for the laundry bag, it will remain a significant piece to my deployment.

Take care of yourself and family,

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Good Morning Fran,

I recently returned to my deployed location from a small period of leave and had a very pleasant surprise on my bunk, that being the hero quilt that you created for me!

Thank-you for making this for me, the Marvel design was perfect and I appreciate the hard work that went into designing and completing this project.  I have been a Marvel comics fan since I was a young boy and have been overjoyed with the movies that have been released so far.  I have placed your quit on my bed and the timing of its arrival was perfect as we are in the middle of winter here and the nights are quite cold.

I too, am married, my wife and I have been together since high school and whilst I have been deployed to my current location we have achieved the ten year anniversary mark.  I was lucky enough to meet her for two weeks in Italy (only returning last night) and we had a belated celebration overseas.  This is my third deployment in four years and I know you can appreciate the stresses of being removed from your partner for a significant period of time.  Gifts like the one you sent me help to remind those of us over here that we have a strong support base back home.

I hope that you and your loved one's haven't been harmed by the floods I have been seeing in the news surrounding the Townsville area.  I visited Townsville for the first time just over a year ago for Talisman Sabre and fell in love with the city.  I come from Mt Gambier in the South East of Australia and Townsville reminded me a lot of home.

Again, thank-you for the gifts, I am now going to enjoy some of the Tim-Tams you sent me as I am a Chocaholic.

Thanks,
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Hi Lisa,

I was fortunate enough within my first year in the army to be nominated for a deployment in the Middle East. It has been a great experience here working in my trade which is logistics, and meeting new people.  I am really looking forward to going home and seeing my partner and family. It has been a positive experience but pretty tough missing family and friends.

I cannot thank you enough for the time you have put into making the laundry bag and quilt for me. It completely surpassed expectations and I am incredibly grateful of the efforts that went into it. I can promise they both will get plenty of use and will be very well cared for.

To summarise, thank you again so much for taking time out of your day and sending me the quilt, laundry bag, hat and Meerkat. It went well above what I had expected, but I love everything and wouldn’t trade it for anything. It takes a very genuine and selfless person to make time to do something like this, and it definitely made my day when I opened the box and found the contents.

Regards 

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Dear Ruth,

Thank you so much for the laundry bag, you have absolutely hit the nail on the head with it; I honestly don't want to put my laundry in the bag because it is a work of art. 

I have been a Firefighter in the RAAF for 6 years now, I was posted to the NT for the first 4 years and now I'm posted to  QLD however currently serving in the middle east. I have recently been promoted to CPL which means I command a fire truck and four troops, when we arrive to a structural fire I have to determine hazards and if it's safe for my crew to make entry to the structure be it aircraft or a building; luckily Australia is one of the safest countries in the world so my training isn't used often.

The shapes you included were very much appreciated, I shared them with my crew. I work with British Firefighter they weren't the biggest fan of Vegemite however gave all the Aussies a good laugh. 

Again thank you very much for the laundry bag! 

P.S see attached the photo of me and my crew, I'm the one sitting on the back of the ute.

Kind Regards,
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Georgina

I am a Firefighter in the Royal Australian Airforce and currently serving in the Middle East. I am sending you this email to thank you so very much for your contributions to our troops stationed abroad,  and for the  forever lasting memory of the awesome quilt. I am sending this quilt back home for my 15yr old daughter so she can take this quilt with her on her School camp. As I will be away while she is on camp she will have the memory that her dad is with her at night. I have a wife and 2 daughters ( 15 and 19) back home in Brisbane. I think that over the last few months they  have appreciated the day to day duties we all perform as a family and I am looking forward to my return. I think Jan-Maree has set up a fantastic organization and as some memories of my tour fade the quilt and laundry bag will always be there as a reminder. Again thank you for the many hours of work that go into making these quilts. It’s people back home that make Australia the lucky country.

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Good morning Clarissa,

May I start by saying a very big thank you for my laundry bag it is awesome. It was a nice surprise to receive this in the mail along it the biscuits. I must say you sound like a very active person and I bet your grandson keeps you very busy.  I bet you are very proud of your children they sound like they have taken after their mother.

A little bit about me:

At 53 years old, I am now entering my 36^th year in the Army. I am an Engineering Officer with the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

I have served 23 years in the British Army and so far 13 years in the Australian Army and I wanted to join the Army from the age of 5.

I have been very lucky to visit numerous countries including Germany, Brazil, Belize, Bosnia, Cyprus, Kenya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Dubai, Tunisia, East Timor, Dubai, Christmas Island,  Israel and Egypt.

I have served in three wars and on three peacekeeping missions the latest one being here in the Sinai as part of the Multi National Force and Observers.

I enjoy personal fitness, Rugby Union (I play as a Hooker or loose prop) and Soccer.

I am very proud to serve Australia and enjoy my job working for the interest of Australia and also working with so many different nations. I respect my subordinates and superiors and like to communicate with the local population of the country in which I am serving.

I am deployed for 12 months here in the Sinai.

Once again very many thanks for my laundry bag and biscuits.

Many thanks for your kind words

Regards

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Good Afternoon Anne,

                       I am a Navy pilot on board HMAS Adelaide and am lucky enough to receive one of your laundry bags. I chose your Horses bag as my grandparents used to breed horses and it reminds me of them and growing up in the country. Originally I am from Orange NSW however I have been in Sydney for most of my Naval career. I initially joined the Navy as an electronics technician back in 1998 and changed over to pilot in 2012.

In all of my time in the Navy (20 years) I have not had a nice laundry bag. It was only recently when I had 2 of the ships issued laundry bags break on me the first time I used them that I then found about that we had a couple of spare bags that have been kindly made by people like yourself. It is an amazing gesture and I am extremely happy that there are people like you in the world.

Thank you kindly again for your lovely gesture. I’ve taken a picture of myself with your bag and attached it to this email. Have a great day

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That is it for this week...
Till next time... keep spreading the word and happy stitching!

Jan-Maree xx