Happy Tuesday Friends!
Does anyone else feel like this year has just flown by? I think all this wind we have been having lately has blown away half the calendar days as well. LOL
We have some great messages and photos today, so grab a cuppa, sit back and relax while you soak up some well deserved gratitude.
Only 38 sleeps until the Thank You dinner.
Hope you see you there!
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Dear Ellen N,Firstly, thank you for the greatest quilt ever! I adore it. Your take on the beach and camping is incredible. I can't stop staring at it - I really do love it.I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to write to you. I imagine you sent the quilt off months ago. I returned from Egypt earlier in the year, and about a month ago, the Chief Clerk (who was still in Egypt) reached out to me. She had been trying to mail me your parcel but it was stuck in and out of customs for a bit! Anyway, it finally arrived safe and sound and I'm so grateful.That's an incredible family history you have of service. As well as your service as a nurse. My mother was a nurse but also recently retired. Thirteen schools is a lot of schools. I'm sure it brought it's own challenges and adventures.Your travels with your husband sound incredible. My husband and I certainly share your desire for adventures! We were lucky enough to explore most of Arnhem Land and part of the Gibb River Road. We haven't made it all the way to the Cape (like you) yet, but it is certainly on our bucket list.It's wonderful that your family has grown so much and you're able to spend time with your grandchildren.I've attached a photo of myself, hubby and our first doggo, Alli, a Belgian Malinois. Our second, a boy, Dallas, is much bigger but not as good at sitting still for photos. Hubby and I are both serving members and still really enjoy it. We hope to grow our family one day soon.Again, thank you for my incredible quilt! I adore it. Honestly, I wish my laundry bag matched it!!Best wishes to you and your family,
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Dear Joanne H,
Thank you so much for the stunning quilt that you made for me. I was absolutely thrilled and taken aback with the detail, the quality and everything about it. Even the touch of the United States flag around my United States patch of Central Command and the Australian flags around my other service patches at the top was just superb and so thoughtful.
I cannot believe the work you went to for me in this quilt and the research and study you obviously did into my service and life in and around the details that Jan-Maree had asked me for. For me, spending my life in the service of Australia was an absolute pleasure as the Royal Australian Navy was and is just such a great institution for this country. Every day I spend in the Navy, be it at sea or ashore was packed with interests and excitement to be part of something bigger than myself, and the people in it are also just a pleasure to work with,
I read in your letter comments about your father and WW2 and can I also thank you for his service, both in the war itself and afterwards, assisting as he could to make life less stressful for veterans. My father was also a WW2 veteran. He was British Merchant Navy and did 6 years of convoy work, mainly in the Atlantic, but also in the Indian and Pacific Oceans later in the war.
Once again, thank you for your kindness, your brilliance in quilting and for taking the time to do this for me, and I am guessing many others. My wife’s mother was a quilter, as is her sister, and she knows a bit about making quilts herself, and she is effusive in praise for this one.
Yours sincerely
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Colleen received the following messages from recruits currently on the Australian Indigenous Development Program (AIDP)
Hello Colleen S,
I just wanted to say thank you and the bag is beautiful. I also wanted to tell you a bit about me and where I'm from. I'm a Tassie boy that is now in Darwin going through AIDP. It's been fun but hard at the same time. We go through a lot of training getting ready for Kapooka and a lot of class work. I was to continue to serve and make my way through my training and to RAEME which is engineering and mechanics on Army equipment. I also have a son which is why I'm here and I made a promise to a very special person up above.
I want to thank you again for the bag, its amazing and you're doing such a beautiful thing.
Cheers
Hello Colleen S.
I've received your lovely laundry bag that you made. It is very amazing and I would like to thank you for it and for your story you shared. I am a Queenslander living in Cairns. I joined the Army to change myself and to support my family.
Kind Regards,
Good Evening Colleen S,
We are very appreciative to receive such beautifully made laundry bags. We will enjoy using them on our daily trips to the laundry and we will keep them with us during our ADF adventures.
We are both recruits and only just starting our journey in the Army.
I am 18 and from Brisbane. I was living there for 4 months and I love it there. The weather in Brisbane is much cooler than here. We are based in Darwin.
My battle buddie is 21 and hoping to become a medic, she has moved up here from Melbourne and is glad to get out of the cold!
We will cherish these bags and so very grateful to have them. I wish you all the best in your retirement.
Thank you again,
Dear Colleen S,
I am glad to receive your laundry bag, I have not written many letters but I am happy that my first can be to you.
I will take great care of my laundry bag and I hope it wasn't too much of a hassle to make.
I am a Canberran training in Darwin. I have always wanted to join the Defence Force and follow in my dad's footsteps and his dad's. I too have traveled a lot around Australia and internationally. I hope my career in RAEME will help me grow as an adult and as a person.
My father is in the Air Force and his father was a rifleman in Vietnam. I am glad to continue the strong line of Defence Force members.
Most importantly, my goal is to allow my parents to retire happy and early
With kind regards
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Dear Kirsten (Bindy) O,
I am truly grateful for the quilt you have made me, it genuinely blew me away! You absolutely nailed it and I love that you were able to have some creative license as I feel that makes me appreciate the hard work you put into it even more. I can’t imagine how much time and effort you put into it, but it is so much more impressive than I could ever have imagined.
Thank you for your 27 years of service, and continuing to serve by making quilts for those of us still in uniform. It must have been so taxing to work with victims of abuse, but it is such important work and reinforces the point of being a good human. I couldn’t agree more about that.
A little bit about me! I grew up in Italy and moved to Australia when I was nine years old. I lived on a farm near Taree until I joined the Army and went to ADFA. After finishing my training at Duntroon I posted to the 2nd/14th Light Horse Regiment in Brisbane as a Cavalry Officer. I have been posted there for the last five years and am now 27 years old on my first deployment to the Middle East.
I wish you and your son the very best for the future. I loved Canberra and am glad you guys are enjoying it too!
Thank you again from the bottom of my heart for what you have done and continue to do.
Kind regards,
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Each year we make personalised mini laundry bags for our VIPS that goes along with their invitations to the Thank You Dinner. These thank you messages are from VIPS who have received our handmade invitations. Bobbie S made half of the bags and Jacqui D made the other half.
Hi Bobbie S,
Just a short note to thank you for the beautiful laundry bag and invitation to attend the Aussie Hero Quilts annual dinner.
Aussie Hero Quilts always deliver thoughtful and meaningful gifts and it is genuinely up-lifting to receive them. Thank you very much, for recognising the service of ADF people and for making us feel valued.
I hope you are well - I used to fly past on my way to Evan’s Head but that was sadly a long time ago now.
Kind regards,
Dear Ms Small (Bobbie)
Just a short note to thank-you so very much for the ‘SEAC’ Laundry Bag.
For many years I’ve admired the work and passion of those who contribute towards, and are involved in, ‘Aussie Hero Quilts’.
Your kind gift is already in use at my apartment here in Canberra!
Thank-you also for the rich heritage of military service within your own family!
Hopefully I get the opportunity to meet and thank-you in person at the Aussie Hero Quilts ‘Thank-you Dinner’ in Canberra on the 26th of October.
Kindest Regards,
Dear Bobbie S.
Words in an email cannot describe how grateful I am to receive my laundry bag and invitation to this year’s dinner; it is awesome.
Thank you also for telling me a bit about yourself; it makes your gift even more personal to me. I love where you live and I also have family on the Sunshine Coast, QLD. In fact, my husband and I have just purchased our forever home on the Sunshine Coast so that we are set for when I eventually finish up in Army.
In my role as the Regimental Sergeant Major of Army, I do a lot of travel so your laundry bag will be put to excellent use.
Thank you for your service and the service of your family. Your ongoing support extending approximately 8 years is greatly appreciated by all of us who serve this fantastic Nation. I hope that one day we might have an opportunity to meet and take a photo together with your beautiful and thoughtful gift.
Kind regards
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Dear Ms Toni F,
I write to express my deepest gratitude for the gift of a laundry bag I received while on my Chaplaincy course in July. It is and will always remain a treasured item from my service. Thank you.
I have served 22 years in the ADF now having first joined the RAAF as a Training Officer in 2002, recently changing to Navy in 2020 to become a Chaplain. I have deployed three times and been on many exercises, everywhere I go the quilts and laundry bags are talked about fondly, hung in barracks or tents proudly, or used as they were intended. My current CO has his hanging on the wall in his office. They are a mark of honour, a badge of pride, similar I think, to a Commanding Officer's Commendation. While a campaign or service medal is special, you earn these by just doing your job. If you turn up and do what you were trained to do - you get one. However, a Commanding Officer's Commendation must be applied for by someone who thinks you did something special, it takes time and effort to complete the application form and prove to the CO that that person is worthy. In a similar way these quilts and bags are more special as they take effort and conviction by volunteers who have nothing to gain for themselves. They are not mass-produced. No one else has a bag like mine. I will go to sea very soon for the first time in my Navy career so the bag will get well used I'm sure.
Thank you for the letter enclosed with the bag also, it was nice to get to know you a little. This and the bag reminds me of who and why I serve. I serve for the freedoms we enjoy, for the good people like you who want to live in a safe society, free to live a full and rich life. Thanks for your service also within aged care and your continued generosity through your donations of patterns and sewing machines (I think my mum has something similar) and your time.
Thank you and stay safe - your work is valued.
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Good Afternoon Pennie T,
Thank you so much for my quilt, It is amazing!!!! When I put my request in at the start of my deployment I never could have imagined how good the quilt I was going to receive would be.
Our rooms over here are quite plain, so as you can see in the pic below the quilt really brightens up my room. I have been here for 4 months already with another 5 months to go and now that I have this amazing quilt I won’t have to look at my boring white bed anymore. I sent a pic of the quilt to my kids when it arrived on Tuesday, I have 5 children and only 2 of them go for the dragons like me so those 2 are already arguing over who gets to have it when I eventually get home (they’re dreaming because I’m keeping it).
I appreciated your letter also, hearing how you made the quilt was very interesting and reading how much effort you put into making the quilt makes it all the more special. I’m glad making the quilt triggered some memories of your holidays, Meung-Sur-Loire sounds amazing!
Once again thank you so much for all the effort you put into making this quilt for me, it is greatly appreciated!
Until next week keep your letters, emails and photos coming in.
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