LOOOOONG post today - grab a cuppa!

If you follow by email you will know that I prematurely posted again today!  Damn and blast it if I didn't push the PUBLISH Button instead of the UPLOAD PHOTO Button!  That's is what happens when you are rushing!

Before I forget - next Sydney Aussie Hero Sewing Day Wednesday 13 June.  Email me for details if you can come.  

Planning on having some sewing fun!

I hope you like the new blog header.  That particular quilt was made by Sue P and she made a special effort to take a picture in an interesting spot on their property!  What can I say!   Love those pigs!  If you want to see your photo featured in the header of the blog try and send me a horizontal picture as well as a vertical one.  I am going to try and change it more often to keep it fresh and feature more of your gorgeous quilt! (note if you are looking at this post in more recent time the header referred to has already been changed)

Spreading the word......

Liz, of WA and the lovely quilts with those ionic red kangaroos, sent me a link today that you need to check out.  Her local quilt store has a newsletter and guess who rated a mention this week - have a peek - scroll down to page three and you will see what I mean.

And while I am talking about getting the word out there, you will be pleased to know that the August edition of a particular quilting magazine is going to be publishing an article about none other than AUSSIE HEROES!   Yay!  Don't worry, I will be giving you all plenty of warning so that you can all rush out and buy a copy!

As of today I have received two letters to go to Egypt - one from Pam and another that I think is from Kirsten.  I will post these off this Friday unless someone lets me know there are more on the way to my letter box....which isn't one of these but couldn't resist the picture

which came from here.

And talking of things which did make it to my letter box, I received a fabulous parcel from Cat this week.  Look what she sent - 

Enough of these blocks for TWO QUILT TOPS.........

as well as all of these blocks.  Hmmm, I see some of that bright green and yellow from the heart blocks with these and a gorgeous quilt resulting.  This may be a job for the Sydney Sewing Day.

There was a little extra room in the parcel so Cat filled it up with prospective backings too!  Thanks so much Cat!  Love those parcels!

And now for my favourite part of tonight's post.  I saved the best til last.  Tonight I was truly humbled!  Tonight I had occasion to speak to the mother of one of our recipients.  WOW!   

Many of the soldiers we have sent quilts and laundry bags to have said that we do not understand how much our efforts mean to them, how much we have boosted their morale!  I thought they were just being kind, just trying to find the right words to say thank you!  But after tonight I believe them!  I think they are right.  I don't think any of us, except maybe the few special Aussie Hero Friends who have served in the past or their spouses, really understand what it is like.  Those who have served overseas have been there but the bulk of us have not. 

Once this mother worked out who I was (that is once she knew I wasn't some loony as her son put it - LOL) she couldn't say thank you enough for the fact that her son received a quilt.  She thanked me on his behalf and then as a mother and then from her whole family.  I was blown away and the phone call was such a gift.

And then I checked my email!  

Over the last few days I have been doing some research.  A friend told me that there were some care packages in a common area that had been there for some time unopened and of course that concerned me.  I decided the best way to set my mind at rest was to check with the guys over there who have requested quilts and three of them have been able to put my mind completely at rest.  Even more than that they have been able to reassure me that Aussie Heroes care packages will not go unclaimed for very long at all AND I now have the ability to send quilts ALL YEAR ROUND - more on that later.

Back to my email  - tonight I received this email reassuring me that Aussie Heroes is heading in the right direction and needs to continue to grow.

Read it for yourself.....

I am glad that I have put your mind at ease. Let me tell you, without a doubt in my mind, that you and your ladies are VERY MUCH APPRECIATED by all the soldiers that have requested products from you. You must believe that your organisation puts smiles on soldiers faces. Period !! For hard men in a very hard environment this is no easy task. Many of us believe that Aussie Hero Quilts is a true ally of the Task Group and someone we are very proud to call friend. As I have told you previously I don't think you and your Army of workers really appreciate the "morale boost" you have given many a combatant.

Okay!  I give in.  I accept, quite happily, that I don't fully understand how much our work has meant to these guys and gals but after emails like this one I am learning!  And it is the loveliest lesson I have ever had.  There may or may not have been happy tears...and wouldn't you just love to give him a hug!

And now.....back to posting year round.....

I have had a number of emails from quilters and quilt groups saying that they are going to start sewing for Aussie Heroes and then I have heard nothing more - probably because they are waiting to send quilts off at Christmas time - quite understandable.

Now, however, we can send all year round and we don't have to wait just for personal requests - though we still love those.  

I am not going to post the addresses I have on the blog as it is early days and I need to maintain some control over the quantities being sent.  However, if you have a quilt or quilts or laundry bags ready to go PLEASE contact me so that I can tell you where to post to.  If you post to the new addresses once. please continue to check with me each time you are ready to post in case I have identified a need elsewhere.  I don't want to flood one area with quilts and not another and until I know the volume they can comfortably handle I need to take it easy.  

I don't want Aussie Heroes to do anything to compromise the respect we are earning.

 As time goes by I will gain more info and will be better able to judge!

Also, please think carefully about what you choose to make.  The main reason I say this is that by far the majority of serving members over there are MALE.  yes, there are some FEMALE but far and away there are more male so I want to minimize the number of feminine quilts initially in preference for GENDER NEUTRAL.  That is not so say that you can't make feminine quilts at all but at this stage I have no idea how many are needed and I would hate to have an over supply of girly quilts and an under supply of masculine ones.

I hope that all makes sense.

So, please get in touch if you are quietly beavering away and sewing for Aussie Heroes as I really need to gauge how much is going on out there.

Let's see if we can send a quilt to every one of these guys!

Oh and before I forget - the mother I phoned has two sons in the military who have served overseas!  One received a quilt whilst serving in Aghanistan and the other one served in East Timor.  Let's just say he is rather jealous that, in his words "you don't get anything like that in East Timor!"   I don't suppose there is anyone out there who would like to make a quilt for a helicopter pilot who has already seen overseas duties AND flew helicopters during the Queensland Floods is there?  I kind of think he deserves a quilt.  No deadline for this one and you will need to send it to me so that I can pass it on the to the mother!  (Already got a Volunteer - thank you!) 

Phew!   Like I said LOOOOONG post tonight but I hope you think it was worth it!  

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

Aussie Hero Quilts 101 Pt 6

Spreading the word

Some people write to me and say they can't sew and they wish they could so that they could help too but then they tell me stories about how they spread the word.  Honestly, that is just as important as the sewing.  The more the word is spread, the bigger we get.  


I am not going to try and credit the individuals in the following stories because I would have to search through emails to make sure I have the details correct so I am just going to relate stories I have been told.  You all know how grateful I am.


Lots of you are talking to everyone you know about Aussie Heroes.  
Here is one message I got -

As you know I have been e-mailing all the places I can find on line and talking to EVERYONE I meet and have left your cards with a few people, I have also had them printed in the school newsletter with my sons' girlfriend being the pick up person for any fabric that may come her way and she will give it to him to pass on to me when he pops in for his work break. I have also added it to our newsletter in our cloth doll club. We currently have 60 members. I think that if people have a work place newsletter or club they could do the same. Not everyone is on line. Just another way to pass the word around

And this from a Real Estate Agent who is also a Friend

I visited my local patchwork shop on the way home this afternoon and I asked him if I gave him a flyer about "our mission" :-) would he put it up in the shop for everyone to see, and he said he would be honoured to. While I was there I bumped a girlfriend who I didnt even know quilted and was telling her about it also and she wants info, she has a craft group that she feels would like to get involved to. As I was talking to K, Jeff (owner of the shop) was looking at fabric and pulled a bolt out still in the plastic and gave it to me as a start.

Penrith Patchwork is the shop- he's offering 20% discount on fabric at the moment.   I have a card which I can scan in and send you just have to tell him its for the military and will help.

I hope this is ok and can we get a flyer.

Also alot of my tenants have indicated theyd be happy to contribute snacks etc for goody bags.

Now that reminds me - I have made up a Flyer which is suitable to hang in a shop window etc.  I have just tonight sent some to some of the guys in Afghanistan so they can go up on a notice board to spread the word.  I can email it to you if you like.  Haven't worked out how to upload it here yet.

I have sent some of my business cards to a few girls.  If anyone else wants some to hand out just let me know.  It makes it much easier to spread the word if you don't have to scramble for a piece of paper to write the details down. 

Some girls chat others while waiting in line at the post office, or the fabric store.  Some are taking their completed quilts to "show and tell".

Just let people know what you are doing - some people will be able to put up a flyer, some will join in the sewing, some might donate fabric and some might not be able to do anything but most will wish you well.  In fact, I have not had one negative comment which I find absolutely wonderful!


Would you believe that in the last 24 hours I have sent a copy of an amended Flyer to two guys, both soon to be recipients in Afghanistan and they both didn't realize they were in contact with me till they both went to put up the same flyer!   LOVE IT!!!!

Incidentally, someone asked me what my standard reply was to "What will you do if they all come home?"

The standard answer for me is that there will always be Aussies serving overseas somewhere.  But seriously if the numbers serving overseas grow too small first I will party!  Then I will make other plans.  We still need to thank our military who do some much for us on Aussie soil especially when you consider all they do for us in difficult time- bushfires, floods, earthquakes.  Maybe we can allow military in Oz to request quilts for the cost of postage – most quilts will fit in a pre paid satchel. Just a thought but we can maybe expand to thank other heroes in the community members – Police, Firefighters, Ambulance, or  All just thoughts at the moment –not overly concerned at this stage as I believe that there will always be Aussies serving overseas.  Does anyone else any ideas?

Raising Funds

Up until now we haven't actually done much fund raising and I don't really intend to in the future.      We have fairly modest needs.  If I was only quilting my quilts I could just buy the batting I need but as I am often sent quilt tops I need a lot of batting so a few funds come in handy.   We have received a few very wonderful donations.  I just want to be in a position to accept donations should any be offered.  In order to do that I need to open a bank account.  I am working on that at the moment and hope to have one sorted in the next couple of weeks.

I will let you know when I have it established in case any of you are offered donations on our behalf.  Donations will go towards buying batting, business cards, box labels, postage and anything else we can't go without.

Update on posting.  

So far I have been sending out these labels to everyone sending out boxes and I thought it wasn't necessary to use them any more but I have had a re-think.  During the Christmas and ANZAC Day mailings our "care packages" are "competing with all the others that get sent over.  In order to make our boxes stand out I still think we need to make them identifiable as AUSSIE HEROES!  We need to make it clear that our boxes are special! 

I have been asking a few questions of the some of the soldiers that have requested quilts and laundry bags and they have been more than happy to inform me - today I got this feedback on how Care Packages are handled at least in the area this fellow is.

Normally what happens is when a shipment comes in they are placed out for individuals to take one if they wish. After about a week, any that are not taken are opened by the Quartermasters and their contents placed into appropriate areas. ie food is sent to the mess, letters go up in the letter board, magazines got to the Recreation Hut, etc. I haven't heard of any Hero Quilts going unclaimed. I know at least one guy who got one in a care package (hopefully he sent a thank you). Things like these would be pretty popular around here.

Not a very exciting post so far but all necessary info.  Now for some pics!  We had an Aussie Hero sewing day on Wednesday this week.  Carol, Claire, Cynthia, Sharon and Wendy came. We worked pretty hard but it wasn't what you would call an exciting day.  I have had about 6 huge garbage bags of donated fabric sitting waiting to be sorted out for weeks.  I had separated out the pieces that would be usable for Aussie Heroes  but there was still plenty left.      I needed someone to help me identify the various fabrics and help me note the various lengths.  My plan is to put the fabrics on ebay and hopefully raise some funds for Aussie Heroes.  Claire and Carol sorted and folded a heap of donated sheets that I am going to use for laundry bag liners.  Lots of them were fitted sheets and needed the elastic cut off them.  And Wendy was the IRON LADY - or the ironing lady.  She made sure that all the Sheets were pressed in half ready to cut into liners.  Thanks girls. It wasn't the most exciting day but it was well worth it.  Next time we get together I promise we will have more fun!

What Carol and Claire brought with them was much more fun and just as well coz we need some pictures in this post.

This is a Turramurra Quilters' effort - top made by Elizabeth and quilted by Carol.  Isn't this gorgeous?   Would you believe that those gum blossom pictures come from one of the lovely tea towels donated to us?  Great idea!

 This quilt top was made by Maria from WA and sent to me for completion.  It features another one of our donated tea towels.  Carol quilted and bound it for us.

 And our final tea towel quilt is the work of another quilter from Turramurra, Trish.   It is not quilted yet but I thought I would show it to you as I love the colours and I think it is a very creative use of the tea towel.  What do you think?

HOPEFULLY, I will get the BOM tutorial for June done tomorrow so I can show you all tomorrow night.  Wish me luck.

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