A quick tutorial

Hi Guys

Caroline here,  I thought I'd help out the Chief and do a post to cover her whilst she's out of town this weekend.

This is a really quick tutorial which could be used with some great feature fabrics, or some block's you have lying around that you're not sure what to do with.  I have been able to get the quilt top together in one night once it's all cut out.

So here goes...

A QUICK AND EASY QUILT TOP TUTORIAL

(Not sure if you can see this too well, the feature fabric is gorilla's in trees)

You need:

 A. 1 metre of Feature Fabric (or 8 x 12 ½ “ Blocks)

 B. 1 metre of Companion or Co-ordinating Fabric

 C. approx 1 metre of Sashing Fabric plain or Patterned

Cutting:

A. 9 X 12 ½ “ Squares (You can use 1 in a matching laundry bag

B. 6 x 5 ½ “ Strips  WOF (Width of Fabric)

C. 10 x 3 “ Strips  WOF (Width of Fabric)

Step 1

From the 3” strips cut 12 X 12 ½” lengths and sew these strips to the edges of your 12 ½” feature fabric squares. Sew 3 strips and 2 Squares together to form a row.  You will end up with 4 rows of 2 squares.  The last square will be on its own, which once sashed can be used on a laundry bag.

Step 2

From the 3” strips cut 5 X 32” lengths and sew these strips on the top and bottom of your first row then sew the second row on then add a strip to the bottom of the second row... and so forth till all the rows are sewn together.  You will end up with 8 blocks (4 rows of 2)  sashed around all sides forming the middle of your quilt.

Step 3

From the 5 ½ “ strips cut 2 X 32” lengths and sew these strips to the top and the bottom of your finished centre.  Now sew 4 WOF strips together, press seam then cut 2 X 71” strips.  Sew one of these strips to each side to complete your quilt top. (I have amended the longer strips to 71" as I made an error originally, Caz)

*** Note please double check your measurements with mine before cutting your strips to make sure the strips will match up.  Otherwise add a little extra to the measurement for the fudge factor.

*** I have used ¼ “ seam throughout and pressed the seams along the way.

 So hope you like this one, and I'll keep my eyes open to see if I can spot some coming through on the blog.  Till next time, happy sewing everyone.  And to all you guys and girls overseas.... stay safe.

Caz

Thanks so much for filling in for me Caroline.  I have just enough time to add in a few thankyou messages and a photo.

Good afternoon Carol and Kelly, 
How are you both?
I received my Quilt recently and am writing to thank you for making it for me.
It was wonderful to receive my Quilt and Laundry Bag, although it is still a bit hot to be snuggling into the Quilt at night. I am particularly grateful that I can identify my laundry at a glance and don't have to rummage through all boys bags looking for my things now.
I do appreciate that you are thinking of us and I am amazed that so many people go to so much effort for strangers. Please know that there have been some very happy people receiving these items and our team works a whole lot better knowing people are thinking about us.
I am looking forward to getting home to see my son who is turning 18.   Not sure I will make that date but I should be celebrating with him not long after. And just quietly, I'm really looking forward to a big glass/bottle of wine.
Thank you again ladies. This Quilt will stay with me forever.
Merry Christmas to you also.
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Good evening Jan-Maree, I have received the laundry bag from yourself and Karen B today. It's great, thank you both very much. I won't have to go through a couple of hundred laundry bags now to find one. Thank you all very, very kindly. 
One of the lads received his quilt today as well and he likes his quilt very much. A few of the other lads and ladies were looking on and asking where it come from. I let them know you are forwarding a box of bags to me as well as XXXXXX. I think we have a few takers. 
Thanks to you and AHQ's for your on going support, it is greatly appreciated. Stay well, stay safe. 

I forwarded this email to Naomi as it was the result of one of the quilts and LBs she sent

Jan-Maree
My quilt has arrived and I love it. Not only that, the personalised laundry bag is exactly what I need.
I just want to thank you again for the work your organisation is doing and enjoyed very much reading the e-mail you sent on Remembrance Day.
Please let me know if there is some way I can support your efforts in future.

I received an awesome quilt and laundry bag in the mail today along with some other goodies and a cool beanie. Please pass on my gratitude to Julie Ann Searle for the excellent job she did and also a big thank you to you and all the other quilters that are supporting us back home. It is really appreciated. I will post some pics of the quilt and laundry bag on Facebook when I get a chance. 
With many thanks,

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

Quilts of the Week 28 Sep

559 Quilts 610 Laundry Bags to date! 

Hi all.  It has been a relatively quiet week for Aussie Heroes as far as quilts going out are concerned but that is due to a number of predictable factors mainly to do with personnel change overs etc.  We have started to received more requests again though so I hope you all have your sewing machines serviced (mine were done yesterday) and ready to go.  

So far this week we have received 7 requests plus I am waiting on more details from HMAS ANZAC and also for another fellow who contacted me from Afghanistan.  The latter already has a quilter even though I don't have his details yet - truly you have got to be quick!

Your cooperation requested please

Can you please do me a favour.  I am happy to send quilts to anyone serving as part of Operation Slipper in Afghanistan, Dubai and on HMAS ANZAC and we also have a relationship with those serving in Egypt.  If you hear of someone serving "over there" and want to arrange a quilt or a laundry bag for them that is great, but PLEASE liaise with me first.  I need the name and rank of everyone a quilt or laundry bag goes to so that we can keep accurate statistics, but most importantly, so that I can avoid duplicate quilts being sent to the same person.  How soul destroying for a quilter to put all their time and effort into making a quilt for someone only to find out that another quilter has sent to them as well.  Hasn't happened yet there have been a few times when a quilt has been requested for someone by two different people.

So, how do we get around this?  Easy.  Before you promise a quilt to anyone on behalf of Aussie Heroes you need to contact me first.  Some times there may be issues you have not thought of - like how long the person has left over there.  I have a fairly good handle on how long things are taking to get to the various places and we need to make sure there is enough time to get  the quilt to them.  Additionally I need to check my list of names and make sure that neither the recipient nor a friend or family member has already requested a quilt for them.

I try to be extremely cautious not to promise more than I am confident that we can provide.  If that is to continue I need to know what other people are promising in the name of Aussie Heroes before they do so as well.  Often this comes about from simple enthusiasm and passion for Aussie Heroes but I still need to maintain the procedures we have that work.

I know Aussie Heroes is a group of volunteers and I can not make any one of you do something that you don't want to do, but we all need to work together to keep the good reputation we have built up.  I also need to be very careful to protect the trust that I have built up along the way.  People know that I understand about protected identity and OP SEC (operations security).  They know that there are things that I will not share on the blog or the Facebook page - and that encompasses more than just the individual names of the serving members. The serving members know that I will not share more of their details than are absolutely necessary to get a quilt to them.  That is why I deal with quilters directly and not through a middle man.  Just the other day I got an email from someone who said they felt comfortable with contacting me as they know I will respect their confidentiality.  That reputation takes a while to build up so please help me to maintain it.

Phone Numbers

Every now and then an email comes along and I think this would be so much easier or quicker for me to handle via a quick phone call.  Plus some times it is really lovely to actually chat to an Aussie Hero Friend  in person.  If I don't already have your phone number, and if you are comfortable with doing so, I would love it if you passed it on to me.

Emails

I think most of you understand that i get a huge number of emails and I endeavor to answer all of them as promptly as I can - mostly so that they don't build up on me!  I am always afraid that I will miss someone's email, or get distracted halfway through answering it and either not answer it at all or not answer it completely.  If that happens please feel free to jog my memory.

I think that is most of the business for tonight so now on to the Quilts of the Week for this week!

I love it when a new quilter gets started because of Aussie Heroes and I especially love it when a young person gets involved!  Amy, who is a lovely Year 10 student spent part of her school holidays sewing laundry bags to send off!  Doesn't that just give you faith in the future!

Kaye sent me this quilt top a while ago and I have received it from the quilter and my friend bound it and off it went.

Deb is a new Aussie Hero Friend and she contacted me to say that she has this fabulous quilt ready to go.  very soon after that I was able to give her the name of a Navy fellow (not onHMAS ANZAC) to send it to - rather appropriate don't you think?

Karen B has continued to create a regular supple of laundry bags.

Lorraine and her small but merry band of quilters have finished a number of quilts between them and the first two have been sent off this week.

This is their second one made by Jen.

Caroline (who you can read more about here sent this neat quilt off this week. 

Beth hopped in and made the next five laundry bags.

Beth

Kelly and Carol combined their efforts and made a set for the dog handlers we have been sending to - the laundry bag and the dog's quilt

plus this uber cute dog handler quilt!

Hilary is another new Aussie Hero Friend, and let me tell you, I think you will be seeing her name featured regularly as she seems to be quite a prolific quilter judging by what she has told me she has ready to go!  This is one of her "plainer" quilts and she told me that to compensate for that 

she quilted it with a lovely all over swirly quilt pattern.  Nothing plain about this quilt now!  And yes, I admit to a bit of quilt envy!

Melissa has put together a bunch of great fresh looking laundry bags.

That shark fabric is really neat.

Naomi, AKA the Tech Guru, made this Jelly Roll quilt.  Let me tell you she and her off-sider/sewing buddy/neighbour Sharina have been working together to crack the code and tell us how to make a Jelly Roll Race quilt that will end up 42" by 72".  Standby.  She is going to write up the tutorial and add a bunch of pictures for us visual types.  When she posts it on her blog I will let you know!

Isn't this a great girly laundry bag - also by Madam Tech Guru.

These next three quilts are the work of Donna, another relatively new 
quiet achiever Aussie Hero Friend.

  I am loving the school holidays.  My husband is away (as usualy) and my 16 year olds are doing their best to become nocturnal and so they are leaving me with lovely quiet mornings and sometimes afternoons to work in peace.   Don't get me wrong i would love to go out to the movies with them or whatever but apparently that would be totally lame at their age!  
So, I am catching up on all manner of things - making backings to go with the quilt tops that get sent to me - cutting battings.  Finally finished the second 30m roll of batting and now need to order a new one but before that I am determined to use up a heap of the scraps that we have so I have some batting piecing to do first - oh joy! 
The quilt top for Ellie-Lou, SGT Diddams' daughter is completed and off being quilted.  The entire quilt for Hens is completed and looks magnificent.  Can't show pics as I don't want to spoil the surprise for the family.  Not sure how many of them check the blog but just in case......
The bundle of blocks and the backing is about to be sent of for TA's quilt and also for SGT Diddams' parents.  Just for any newbies that have joined since we last spoke about these quilts - the Diddams family is getting special treatment as they are our first Fallen Warrior Quilts (FWQ) .  All subsequent families that are happy to receive a FWQ will receive one quilt made from BOM (block of the month) blocks.  I have just about finished sorting out all the blocks that I have received this month - hooley dooley ladies you out did yourselves.  More blocks received this month than any other month!  Big thanks to my lovely Gumnut friend (my quilt group) Lyn for helping me sort through all the blocks and group them for quilts.  There are even more in the mail!

And that my Friends is it for another week.

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