Grati-Tuesday 11 June 19

First up... how good is this.  
A random message out of the blue from a recipient from years ago
We love getting messages like these.  It is so good to know that these quilts live on long after the deployment is finished. 
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Hi Aussie quilts. I have one of your quilts from my deployment to Afghanistan in 2015.  It has become one of those things in our house you always had. Like one of those things from your childhood home you can always remember your parents having

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Just wanted to say a huge thank you for the beautiful laundry bag you made me. It has really made my deployment! It’s gorgeous, I really appreciate it Cats and chocolate are literally two of my favourite things!!

The photo is taken in my ‘sick bay’, which is my workplace on the ship. I’m the ship’s doctor and share this area and a small office area with two medics (as you may know, medics in the Navy are trained as a sort of halfway between paramedics and enrolled nurses). We have fun in our little team… other people on the ship come visit to keep us busy – a few interesting cases, but a majority of ‘manflu’ and little injuries from people attempting gym exercises when the ship is rolling around in the ocean… other than that people are behaving themselves which is good. I also work closely with our ship’s Chaplain – as your husband would know these deployments can be hard on some members so between the both of us we try to keep them happy and well supported.

While I love the main part of the job, I also love the port visits – it is definitely an amazing way to see the world!  A lot of the time I’ll still have work, like taking people to hospitals or getting scans done, but when we get time off it’s great. Seeing a lot of new countries which is always good!

My Mum is also an avid quilter and actually makes quilts as part of a group Community Quilts, and gives them to people in hospital or after bushfires etc. I was pretty excited to show her the Laundry Bag you made me!

Thank you again – it really is appreciated!

Hello Shirley,

Just wanted to pass on a quick thanks for the quilt you sent through. It might seem like a small thing, but little packages in the mail like that can really bring up our spirits over here. The quilt is great, and I'll definitely have it either on my bed or hanging from the wall even when I return home. You have quite some skill!

This is my first overseas deployment, and I think I underestimated how much I would miss my siblings, who I can't talk with as frequently as my girlfriend. They are scattered around the world so arranging for a group Skype chat when we are all available is quite the feat, but really worth it. My brother was in the Army and served in Afghanistan. We sent him a lot of care packages while he was over there, which he thanked us for, but I don't think I fully realised what it meant to get a small reminder of home until I was in a similar position myself. It really does brighten your day, regardless of what is inside the small box.

Hope all is well with you, and please know that the Aussie Hero quilts are very well appreciated (and sought after) over here.

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G’day Caroline

Yesterday I received a wonderful Laundry Bag with a special greeting of ‘fairy penguins’ from Victoria.  May I sincerely thank ‘Aussie Heroes’ for their thoughts and efforts with my fondest thanks to Victoria.  I separate from Air Force on 25 Jun 19 after almost 27 years of Service and will treasure your gift.

With regards

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Dear Anne,

Thank you so much for our laundry bag! What a thoughtful and generous gift.. we wanted to let you know how much we as a family appreciated all your efforts and that we are avid Star Wars fans!

Thank you again, we love it.

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Good Morning Anna

First of all, sorry for the late response.  I absolutely love the WOW quilt and murloc bag that you have created for me, it actually surpassed my expectations.

The Horde/Alliance sigil is perfect, and I love the quotes on the back! My wife loves the murloc bag as well!

I really like reading about other peoples experiences from the game, it's such an amazing world that I am thankful for having the opportunity to be a part of.

I never really got into cosplay but I do appreciate the work that goes into the outfits!

I also have a Staffy which we called Gracie, she turned 8 this year. She is a little smaller than most of them that you come across, she is super cute though. She is also rather spoilt most of the time, she really knows how to get what she wants.


This is my first deployment, I look forward to having the chance to go over and serve for a second time, maybe not for a couple of years though.

I would just like to say thanks again, it was a fantastic gift to receive, we are going to use it for our first born (we are due in a few months).

Kind Regards
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Dear Ashleigh,

I have been meaning to write this letter ever since I received the absolutely beautiful quilt you made me from Aussie Hero Quilts. My apologies it has taken me so long.

Just a little background from me.

I have two boys 5 and 3 who are my world. Having this blanket has given me the opportunity to leave something special for my kids that represents my service.

As I am unable to deploy a colleague was kind enough to order a blanket for me (in lieu of himself) which I will be forever grateful for. When he asked what theme I’d like- I knew straight away. Native Australian Flowers. What more could a girl want?
We have been work colleagues for many years and for him to be able to request such a special gift is wonderful.

I joined the RAAF as an Air Mover. This job involves the loading and unloading of cargo aircraft. We specialise in vehicles, emergency relief, passengers and general cargo etc.
My job has taken me to different locations throughout Australia as well as Antarctica, USA, the Phillipines, New Zealand just to name a few.

I hope this letter expresses how grateful I am to have this quilt that you made.

Kind Regards,
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Hi Marilyn,

I want to start by saying, thank you very much for the laundry bag (you should have seen how happy I was when I opened it). I proudly took it around the ship showing other people. I have attached a photo of my car for you to see.

So about my job. I am posted to HMAS Ballarat. My core job is to manage the maintenance of our Seahawk helicopter and I conduct this with a group of 13 maintainers, we call it a flight. As Ballarat is a mining town, the aircraft's name is Gold digger. I find this a very rewarding job as I have a big part in ensuring out aircraft can get out every day and search for suspicious boats for the ship to investigate. I have been in the Navy for 18 years this year and currently and have had many great adventures. I am currently planning to leave after 20 years to move onto something else to be closer to my family and start a new chapter.

My Family. I have been married for 13 years and have been with my wife for 18 years. We have two children together, an 11yo boy, and 8yo girl. We also have a Husky. We have been working toward building our own home for a long time now and ironically it is now over a year old and I have only lived in it for 2 months. I am really looking forward to getting back there to enjoy it with them.

And me. I grew up in Tasmania with a younger sister and brother. I rode BMX, went rock climbing and Kayaking worked at a service station on weekends. I joined the Navy at 18 and have never regretted it. I love the environment, the ocean and tinkering on cars old or new. I am part of a movement called Take 3 where we encourage people to just take 3 pieces of rubbish with them whenever they go to a beach, park or any ware really. I currently like to go stand up paddle boarding in the surf, I find it works well for me as I can see the kids playing on the shore while I am in the surf. As for the cars, they have just always been a part of my life and I like the satisfaction of working on and rebuilding them.

Once again, thank you very much for taking on my request. It really does mean a lot to all of us out here when we receive them.

Serving you proudly
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Dear Lynn,

First of all, thank you so much! The quilt is absolutely spectacular, better than I could have ever imagined.

 I am the in the Dental Department. We are currently deployed on OPERATION HIGHROAD.

I am due to return home soon, not long now, and look forward to some sunshine (-18°C was our coldest, and the weather is currently like Melbourne on Boxing Day at the cricket).

A little about me, this is my first operational deployment. I have deployed on international exercises, but never on operations. I have been incredibly fortunate to deploy with such a great team, and I have

thoroughly enjoyed meeting people from Coalition nations.

I am originally from Melbourne, but now reside in Brisbane with my wife  and two dogs. I too was born in the UK and arrived in Australia as a child. However, I did not end up marrying an Australian, my wife hails from Edinburgh. 

As you may have guessed from my request, I am a mad AFL fan. My father keeps trying to convert me to soccer, but you cannot raise a lad in Melbourne and expect him to support anything other than

AFL – Lions and Bombers forever! Thank you for meticulously including the crest in my quilt!

As a Dentist, I operate in a medical facility of comparable size to a large country hospital treating dental patients from NATO and Coalition nations. It is a very rewarding, exciting and special job! The great aspect of providing dental treatment is being to help people who, in some cases, have never seen a dentist. Trying to explain why they have holes in their teeth when they cannot speak English is an entirely different matter! I have had to learn basic Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Romanian. Also, there are some interesting cases that I would never see back in Australia as a result of our comparatively better dental hygiene.

When Jan-Maree said that she would have laundry bags and quilts organised for our team, I never anticipated them to be so incredible. As you can imagine, we all miss home, we miss Australia and we miss our families and friends immensely. However, receiving such gifts provides a timely morale boost, and reinforces our belief that our time away will have a positive impact.

I thank you for thinking of us while we are deployed, this has definitely brightened my day!

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Dear Lynn, Wendy & Jan-Maree

I have been away from my base for three weeks and was so pleased to come back to an absolutely beautiful quilt and two lovely letters.

I cannot tell you how much it means to me to see the quilt each day and feel a part of your lives. We all proudly show off our quilts to each other when they arrive which is lovely, thank you all so much for the time and thoughtfulness that goes into each of these. I feel privileged to have something so beautiful and made with such care.

It is coming into summer and the weather here in Kabul is mild at night and sunny during the day so the quilt has arrived just at eh right time as it is perfect for the warmer months!

Kind regards,

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G’day Caroline

Yesterday I received a wonderful Laundry Bag with a special greeting of ‘fairy penguins’ from Victoria.

May I sincerely thank ‘Aussie Heroes’ for their thoughts and efforts with my fondest thanks to Victoria.

I separate from Air Force Jun 19 after almost 27 years of Service and will treasure your gift.

With regards

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Hello Chris,

I serve in the Royal Australian Navy as a Hydrographic Systems Operator. I’m still rather new to the job, I joined straight out of high school.
Out of all my siblings, I am the 7th child. All of my siblings get along well and I really enjoy when we get together on big occasions like Christmas or mums birthday. The oldest sibling is 28 and the youngest is 14. As I am a surveyor the trips that we go on aren’t that long. I enjoy this job as it gives me the opportunity to explore new foreign places. I’ve been to Bali, Jakarta, Langkawi, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
It is a very exciting job at times and the friends I’ve made in the force are irreplaceable.
Kind regards,

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Hi Gail and Jan-Maree

Thank you so much for the quilt. It is wonderful. I think I might even take it when we go on exercise and we are allowed swags.
I also think my daughter loved it as she has pulled it out of the cupboard a few times to use when lying down in the lounge room. She is now 2 years old and full of attitude, character and beans. I love being back with her and my wife to be a family again.

I'm sure you are aware by now. I was over in Afghanistan. I was deployed as a Craftsman and was part of the maintenance crew over there.
As part of my job, I got to travel around to a lot of the other bases in the area to keep our equipment up and running. As you can imagine it got quite cold over there during winter with a few snowfalls of around 30cm.

Thank you both once again for your support. It really does make being so far from home a little easier knowing people back home appreciate what we do.

Thank you once again

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Good afternoon Jan-Maree

Today, I received the most incredible quilt EVER… my first reaction was to burst into tears. Thank you for all that you do for us and all the amazing quilters around Australia.

A lady by the name of Ellen Newman from Falls Creek made my quilt. She has done superb work….. I adore it.

I have run around our camp showing everyone.

It is amazing how morale is boosted by these beautiful things.

Thank you again for the kindness, time and skill that all your quilters and yourself, show us.

Kindest regards

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Good afternoon Ellen,

I am completely lost for words. I have just received my superb quilt and my first reaction was bursting into tears. I absolutely adore it. You are such a beautiful quilter and your work is beautiful.

I promise I will write you a letter as I believe they are more personal but today I had to write to you immediately to thank you so very much for my quilt.

I took my quilt around the whole camp and showed everyone. There were so many gasps and ooohs and aaaaahhhhs from everyone.

I have taken a photo of the quilt and sent it to the lady I used to do volunteer work for at her miniature donkey farm. She too was blown away. When I am not all crying and red eyed, I will make sure I have a photo taken with my quilt and send it to you.

I think the most precious thing that any one person can give another, is their time and I want to thank you for taking the time in making my incredible quilt.

Thank you so much for your letter also and telling me a bit about yourself.

I will make sure I pen you a letter this evening.

With the most kindest regards

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Hi Jan-Maree,

Please thank the maker of my bag so much for my Laundry Bag. I’m an Officer on HMAS Leeuwin, a Hydrographic Survey Ship. I’ve been posted to this ship for about a year now after coming off HMAS Ballarat (a frigate – currently about to return from the Gulf.

We received our bags last Friday, just prior to us sailing this morning on our second overseas deployment this year. The bags are particularly useful at sea, as our issued laundry bags are netted, and it will be more hygienic to place the netted bag within this bag. I had my eye on this bag from the beginning after they were brought down to the Junior Sailor’s Café for issuing, but I had to wait for a while hoping no-one else would take it as the Chaplain whom brought them let the most junior ranks, starting at Seaman, choose first. There were some really greatly designed bags to choose from.

Anyway, the whole Crew appreciated their bags, and with each bag being of a different design, I can see that people will get attached to them and take them on their various future postings after they leave this ship. It’s something we can use for the rest of our Careers, being recognisable as ‘my bag’. I’m already seeing them down in the Ship’s Laundry.

Once again, please thank the maker of my bag.

Your Aye 
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Good Morning,

On behalf of HMAS Armidale please accept our heartfelt appreciation for your kind gifts. They greatly assisted the Commanding Officer and I, actively improving morale during a busy operational period and a long stretch away from loved ones. Please find attached a letter of thanks as well as two photos of the crew enjoying your amazing laundry bags.

Kinds regards,

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For a laundry bag made by Robyn Wh.

Thank you so much.  Just got it today and I absolutely love it.

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

Jan-Maree xx