Before the happy mail post tonight I just want to say thank you for the lovely emails I received in response to last night’s post and my comments re care packages and mail.  It is sometimes hard to be sure that the what you think you are saying is what everyone else is taking away from your message.  

I just think it is so important that the value of mail as a morale booster not be under-estimated. The purpose of last night’s post was not to encourage those that sew for Aussie Heroes to send more, but rather was written for those that read the post who are friends and family of those that are deployed.    

I believe that we, the quilters and laundry bag ladies, send enough just by sending our quilts and bags.  Any treats we include are a bonus.  It is the friends or mates of our deployed that I was mainly trying to encourage as I sometimes think we think someone else is doing it.  It is like when a group of you plan to go out to dinner and everyone assumes that someone else has made the reservations, only to arrive at the restaurant and find that noone did.  

So, many thanks for your support everyone  – your emails have been very encouraging to me as well.

A tidy little happy mail today but some lovely things included in it. 

First up I put out a call for some tea towels which was answered by my cousin from WA.  And extra nice is that these came from the linen cupboard of Helen who is RAAF mum and was more than delighted to donate them to the cause.
Personally I think this is the best possible use for tea towels.  Just a thought but I regularly get comments from people who can’t sew saying they would love to help but know know how.  An easy way is to keep your eye out for cheap Aussie Tea Towels and send them to me so that they can be made into laundry bags.  These go down very well with the troops.  Funny ones are great too as well as souvenir ones from a particular state or town.

Loris sent in this gorgeous collection of BOM blocks.  There are six more that did not make it on to the design wall but won’t these make a gorgeous quilt all by themselves.  That may be a project for tomorrow’s sewing day.   

Sarah sent in four cool laundry bags and at least one of these is going straight out in the mail to an eagerly waiting female tomorrow.


Tomorrow is the next sewing day at my home.  Rita is coming and has volunteered to sit and bind the latest five quilts collected from Kim M who has just quilted them!!!  YAY.  Can you please let me know if you are coming so I can get organised if need be.

Our Mystery Quilt for Our Deployed Quilter…………………

…………………… is about ready to put together!  I now have EVERYONE’s blocks except for Laurel who will be delivering her block tomorrow.  The blocks all look wonderful!!  I have to be careful what I say about this quilt as Our Deployed Quilter, as she is now known, tells me that she is a big fan of the blog and looks at it regularly.   She is enjoying seeing what we are up to.

The new Mystery Quilts

It is about time to start another Mystery Quilt and this time I am going to run two concurrently, one for a male and one for a female. 

The masculine quilt is for a Cronulla Sharks fan,  Here is the logo and also a photo of the fellows in their team colours just to give you a starting point for colour.

There is no need to include the shark logo or sharks at all  but what I am looking for is star blocks in mostly blues with a bit of white.  Try and make sure there is some contrast in the star points but lets see if we can avoid aquas.   Unless the fabric features sharks please try to avoid novelty fabric etc.   I plan to add black corner stones to the stars and also black bindings.


The female quilt will be a bit of fun – another star quilt but this time in the colours of aqua and purple.  


The theme for this quilt is ELEPHANTS.  I have said star blocks but if you have an elephant idea that does not fit into a star block, or would like to applique an elephant for example, then please make a 14.5 inch (inlcuding seam allowances) block in any form you like.

(source) Note – this was taken by one of our past recipients on HMAS Toowoomba!  Thanks mate!


Once again need 15 blocks per quilt and to make sure that we do not get too many blocks for each quilt please register with me before making your block.  All blocks to be in the mail and on their way to me no later than Friday 6th of September if possible please.  That gives plenty of time for the blocks to be put together and the quilts completed in time to send them off.

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