First I thought you might like to know what we got up to today. Stephanie T, Dasha, Robyn and Rita C came to work today. We got so much done – it is always such a boost for me to see how much more gets achieved with a few willing helpers. First Stephanie and I got stuck into cutting up a whole roll of batting. Now it is neatly stacked in the office ready for use. Then the others arrived and we continued cutting up backings this time off rolls of fabrics. It makes it so much easier for me if I can just grab a piece of batting and grab a backing and away I go.
I put Rita to work putting some of the Wonky Cross BOM Blocks together and she pieced a beautiful earthy quilt top but I don’t have a photo of it for you as I think it is in the boot of Stephanie’s care for quilting. Stephanie took about ten quilts with her to quilt for us.
Dasha and Robyn were gainfully employed sewing a quilt top together and also adding borders to quilt tops that were either too short or too narrow. Stephanie sorted through all the quilt tops I have here and checked that they were the correct size and matched them up with backings. Most of the time I was cutting out laundry bags or generally doing a bit of this or a bit of that as required. Supervising and directing might be the correct term. LOL
This is the quilt top that Dasha and Robyn pieced, mostly from BOM blocks that Dasha had sewn with a couple of ring ins like the Australia block.
I just have one plea. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you are going to send me a quilt top can you make sure that it is 42″ wide by 70″ long. For ease of handling and economy of effort I cut all my backings and battings to 80″ long. I do not have time to individually measure quilt tops to size the battings and backings accordingly. Your assistance in this area would be much appreciated.
What follows are some of the requests that have come in this week. They may or may not be available still but the request list will be coming out tomorrow. I don’t have a huge number of people on the list at the moment but fear not -HMAS Melbourne will be giving me their list of requests in the next few weeks so there will be plenty of requests to go around.
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Good Morning,
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Hi 😀 I hope you are having a great day! ( well with the time difference ‘I hope you had a great day’ is probably more appropriate, hehehe). I am a Defence Civilian currently deployed with the ADF to the Middle East until the end of December. I was in the room of one of the girls here and commented on her lovely quilt, she said it was an Aussie Heroes Quilt and told me of the wonderful work you are doing. It was great to see how happy she was with the quilt and it really brightened up the room and made it feel more homely. This is my first deployment, as an XXXXXX and I was hoping I would be able to get a quilt sent to me too. I am not sure what you need to know but I love bright, colourful things (something to really brighten your day) and I can be a bit quirky at times. I love talking to people, reading and one of my passions is Space (stars, rockets, etc). I also love singing and often get songs stuck in other people’s heads when I unconsciously start singing aloud 😉 If you are unable to get a quilt to me that is fine as I’m sure there are many people who want one. Either way though, I would like to thank you all for your hard work and dedication to this project. You can tell that a lot of time and love is put into the quilts and it really makes a difference to the people here… it is wonderful to know that someone is thinking of you and wanting to create something so beautiful to brighten your day and make you feel more at home, it brings a bit of cheer to what can be a busy, stressful and harrowing experience for many people. I wanted you to know that it does make a difference and encourage you to keep up the great work!! 😀 Thank you very much,
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I really enjoyed the last email so I wrote and thanked the author and asked permission to publish most of it as it is a perfect example of the gorgeous things people say when they request a quilt. Her reply was just as lovely.
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Hi Jan-Maree 🙂 Thank you for your email, it has made me feel very loved too 🙂 I am glad it will be shared as I agree that everyone should know that their work makes a difference and is appreciated, send everyone a big hug from me for their work. I am very excited to be getting a quilt and thank you for putting me on the list, I can’t wait. Have a great weekend,
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So, you should all consider yourselves hugged! 😀 Got to love a hug!
Till next time……………..keep spreading the word and happy stitching! JMxx
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