Quilts of the Week 25 Jan

80 quilts and 198 laundry bags for 2013 

and 1026 quilts and 1565 laundry bags over all.

Please excuse minimal words tonight.  My new laptop has died :-( and I am making do with the old one which is missing the "A" key!   Not happy Jan(Maree)!!

This is Liz B's second version of this gorgeous quilt.

The next two are also more of Liz B's work.

Belinda sent off another kangaroo quilted lovely!

Carolynne

Evelyn

 Joan has sent off her first AHQ!

 Maddy 

Michelle

Rita C

Liz 

Peggy made this from blocks that Sue N sent her. 

Mary completed this quilt top and Tess quilted it.

Kitty

And how about a few thank you messages for tonight as well  :-)

The following thank you is for Lesley L

Sorry for the late reply, I have been on leave.
I was very glad when I returned to have received you packages. The quilt and the laundry bag are wonderful, so was the rest of the little extras placed into the box. Thank you so much to you and to the rest of the ladies for doing this for me, I am really grateful.
The letter has not arrived as yet, but mail can be all over the place. Feel free to pass on my contact details if she would rather email me.
Thanks so much again for the ongoing support from yourself and your organisation. 

And one for Gail's Southern Cross Quilt and my laundry bag and for the Team's quilts from Nancy

Hi Jan,
Yes, I have received my monogrammed washbag and southern cross quilt. They are fantastic. Thank you.  All of my soldiers have received theirs approximately a week before I did. They are all really happy, and most importantly were all surprised when they arrived (all on the same day amazingly). 

And another one for Gail

"Today I received my Aussie Hero Quilt. It really warmed my heart to

receive such a wonderful gift. My friend organised it for me

as a surprise when I commented on his quilt. The horses are a wonderful

touch and I imagine would have been quite a difficult pattern to get. It

is going to make a wonderful memento of my time here in Afghanistan. 

Thank you so much for donating your time to do something for the

soldiers. I love walking into the laundry to see all the variety of

colourful laundry bags. It is the considerate and generous people like

yourself that make me love Australia and proud and willing to defend it.

Thank you again,

Warm regards,

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

Happy Mail Part 2

First up a lovely thank you message for Melissa from HMAS ANZAC

Dear Melissa & family,

My name is XXXXX and I am a Lieutenant in the Navy. I would like to express my sincere thanks for the beautiful quilt you made, which I received in December - just in time for Christmas! 

Additionally, thank you for the accompanying note with the quilt. I am honoured to be the first recipient of what I am sure will be many more quilts (judging by the excellent quality). The quilts were very sought after on board and I want to pass on how grateful I and the crew are for all the hard work that goes into making them, it really is very much appreciated. I noted that your daughter helped you to make my quilt and as I too have a daughter (6 yrs), I felt a special connection. Many people have commented on how lovely my quilt is and it was great to be able to share that it was your first ever quilt, made with the help of your family and co-worker.

I thought you may enjoy a photo, which I had taken in front of our helo.  

Thanks again for making such a wonderful memento for me of my time on board HMAS Anzac in the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO) and I will treasure it forever.

Yours Aye

And a few more

Hi Stephanie,

Would just like to say a big thank you for the fantastic laundry bag you made for me. I have to say it really is wonderful and the design is really great. Again, thank you so much! It was quite the unexpected surprise to receive it as it was obviously unexpected. As you can imagine, everyone here looks forward to receiving mail from home and any package received always increases morale, regardless of who its from.

Anyway, again, thank you for the lovely laundry bag you sent for me. Its people like you who give up their time for us here that keep our hearts warm, our morale up and our minds focused. And for all that, to us, you are all true heroes!

Hi Stephanie,

I just wanted to send a quick email to let you know I received your parcel today. The laundry bag is fantastic and I will be putting it to use straight away. Not surprisingly, the M&Ms were consumed on sight by those I work with. 

Thank you and regards,

Hey Judy and Dickie,

 Thank you for the blanket and bag, it is very much appreciated and will cop a fair bit of use!    It's a bit fresh but no where near as cold as I was imagining (touch wood it stays that way).   Hope you all had a awesome Xmas and New Years, thank you again for the blanket and bag.

Liz,

 The quilt you sent could not be more amazing and could not have come at a better time.

 You are right in terms of weather, it is getting very cold here. They are predicting snow

 here tomorrow.  Morning temperatures have been minus 2 to minus 5 degrees. Kabul was minus 16' just last week.  The soldiers, sailors and airmen are so appreciative of the efforts of yourself and those that contribute to quilts for "Aussie Heroes".

Might I add, so am I. 

The following also refers to a quilt that Liz sent.

Hi All

You sent a quilt to my daughter who is serving in the Middle East. I just can’t tell you how thrilled she is and how supported she feels by your magnificent work. Thank you all so much.  I’m not up to quilting but I’ll be working on some laundry bags for you.

Cheers

And now for some of the Happy Mail that didn't make it into last night's post!

First up some gorgeous 80's crazy blocks from Claire!  I think we have enough now and unless somebody else badly wants to have the fun of putting this together I will get on to it as soon as I get back from driving my son to Boarding School next week.  Should any extra blocks turn up I will do something fun with them for the back!

Jodie - a grateful Mum of one of our recipients has put this quilt top together for us and I will be adding a few words to it to suit one of our special requests.  Thanks Jodie, you have given me a great base to build on.

These laundry bags are Jodie's work too.

Kiwi Karen took this home and sewed it together after the Penrith Sewing Day and it has arrived back in the mail.  I am trying to decide if it needs a kangaroo or not.

Judith M dropped in yesterday with the motherload.  First these great BOM blocks

Then two quilts with backings and battings to be quilted.

And some great laundry bags.

I am sending this one to 7RAR.

Miriam sent over this gorgeous quilt top and it has been beautifully quilted by Paul and Paula.  I have decided to put it aside as a Wounded Warrior Quilt which it seems perfect for.

Pieced from Blocks of the month and quilted by Paul and Paula

Just had to show you the backing fabric which was donated by Judith and was just perfect for this gorgeous cheery quilt

These were made by Michelle on her embroidery machine and sent to me for a special recipient on HMAS TOOWOOMBA.  I actually grabbed some of these this morning and added them to some BOM blocks and before I knew it I had a quilt top ready to go to the quilter today!  YAY.  And I have some of the nautical pics leftover for another nautical quilt!

Michelle also made this for another special recipient on HMAS TOOWOOMBA

I don't think I always need to reply to the comments on the blog but I do if I think there is a need or if I think the author would appreciate the comment.  Sometimes though I can't reply to them even if I want to because the person who has left the comment is a "no reply blogger".  That means that although your comment is emailed to me I cannot reply as your email address is not shown - instead it says "no reply blogger".  Now if you don't want me to reply that is fine but if you want me to be able to answer you here is what you need to do.

In blogger.com click on dashboard.

Select Edit Profile

Check the box for "Show my Email Address."

Save the changes and Bob's your Uncle you are no longer a no reply blogger.

So, for TheDill and Carole, if you would like me to reply to your comments, and I would love to, all you need to do is either email me (friendsofAHQ@gmail.com) or change your status so that you are no longer a no reply blogger and leave me another comment.

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

Quilts of the Week 28 Dec and farewell 2012

2012 is nearly gone.  Bring on 2013!!

952 quilts and 1361 laundry bags to date! 

Given the holidays it might be a little quieter in Aussie Hero-ville than usual but there are still a few quilts making it to the mail each week and after the New Year I am sure the numbers will start to rise slowly again.

Liz, with kangaroos on point this time 

 

 Heilie has completed her first AHQ

Liz sent it on its way with a matching laundry bag perfect for a West Aussie lad.

and the back - minus the initials.

A few extra laundry bags made it into a box and off to some 7RAR ones.  I reckon there might be a bit of competition for some of these.  Rock, paper, scissors anyone? I think my favourite is the skate boarder though!

Claire did a tutorial for this one if anyone is interested

Caroline created this and it is worth noting this is all the scraps left over from one meter pieces that Caroline has bought for laundry bags.  Great use of scraps!

Caroline went a little APE over this one!  LOL

Kaye

Excuse the smudgy patch - covering up the letters!

Lynn made this gorgeous top, I took it to Paul and Paula for quilting and then I finished it off with black roo.

Can I just say that I love these robots!!!

Michelle put her sewing machine to good use again with more of "My Country" plus the map of Australia and the popular quote PLUS, my current favourite, the Rising Sun!

Gotta love the Garfield Bag!

This is a laundry bag that I sent off earlier and had to wait till his mum let me know that it has arrived safe and sound.

Two Wounded Warrior Quilts were sent on their way to re-stock supplies.  This one is by Vicky

and this is one by Tarnyia.  

 I have taken to making Aussie Laundry bags to go with the WWQs as the soldiers get to take nothing with them when they go- a nurse travels with them with enough money to buy emergencies bits and bobs and I believe that they receive a backpack full of basics from the RSL but I figured the laundry bag would come in handy for carrying the quilt home or even once home, for use in the hospital.

I had had a ball sewing this last week.  This is one of my projects.

Every surfie needs a dog right - modelled after my own little girl of course!

And of course the obligatory laundry bag to go with it.

And then there is this one that I prepared, well sent, earlier but for obvious reasons, (look at the bottom left) I could not show till it had been received.  Well it arrived around Christmas Eve I think!  This is just a simple quilt with a few aircraft and fish and interesting prints but then I sent it off to Paul and Paula!

They knew it was for a very special Doctor (well that is what everyone tells me he is!) and they went to town on it.  It is quilted with BANDAIDS

CRUTCHES

SYRINGES

AND STETHOSCOPES!

 Don't you just love it!  I was like a cat on a hot tin roof waiting for this one to arrive.  And when it does I received a lovely photo 

and a gorgeous thank you message.

I personally have been so touched and blessed by your generosity and thoughtfulness, and by those that contribute to your wonderful work (in particular Paul and Paula).  XXXXX (medic) (quilt by Kaye) and XXXX (nurse) (quilt by Terry) who I work with have likewise been deeply touched and are very grateful for your time, effort and the amazing gifts you send.

That AMAZING quilt!!  I was stunned!!  I've got it laid out on my examination couch at the moment (it will be on my bed soon!) and have spent quite some time studying it; delighting in all the little, ever-so-thoughtful, intricacies sown into it!!  I would very much appreciate it if you could pass my gratitude to Paul and Paula too for their part in crafting it.  The quilt is something I will always treasure and also take with me whenever I deploy.  There is something very comforting about having it that's impossible to really explain but just 'is'.  

Well, this is it!  The last post for 2012.  Aussie Heroes is almost one year old.  Amazing where we started and where we have come to. Fitting that Tarnyia has a quilt in the last post for 2012 when she was one of the very first quilters to come on board before Aussie Heroes had officially been born!

We didn't make it to 1000 quilts in the first year but we are very close and I am more than happy with that.  We currently have 43 requests on the books that are not allocated, though most of them are not due home till June/July and 61 requests that are currently under construction.  So I guess you could say that we have over 1000 quilts on the books as of year's end!  YAY!

Just a little point.  We would not normally have that many requests unallocated but I am not sending out a lot of emails at the moment calling for quilts as I know people are taken up with family and holidays.  As quilts become available I am allocating quilts based on return to Oz dates.  Those coming home soonest get the first quilts.  If you want to make a quilt for someone do not hesitate to let me know.

And the last word tonight is for the Navy.  HMAS TOOWOOMBA, the vessel that will take over from HMAS ANZAC on pirate patrol in the Middle East sailed today!  I have already met with the chaplain, we had coffee just before Christmas and he is a lovely man, as you would expect.  We are going to start working on quilts for HMAS TOOWOOMBA pretty soon so if you are interesting in sewing for them please let me know.  Mail for HMAS ANZAC was woefully slow and unpredictable it seems so we are going to try and get goodies in the mail to TOOWOOMBA much sooner if we can.

To those on TOOWOOMBA we wish you fair seas and following winds.

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