Weekly Dispatches 16 August

Greetings all.  I hope you all have something nice planned for this weekend.  A little sewing perhaps, a nice meal and time with friends or family.  

If you are home on ROCL at the moment, and I know of a couple of special guys who are, I hope you have an extra special time with your loved ones!

Don't forget to spare a thought for our deployed folks.  

Those in Egypt on Operation Mazurka must be feeling a little uncomfortable with the current political situation.  Being part of a United Nations Peacekeeping Mission, as far as  I know means they are un-armed for the most part.  It has got to be more than a little un-nerving over there at the moment and I can only assume they have a heightened concern for their security at the moment.  Let's hope all of our Aussies and the others in the Multi-national Peacekeeping Force in the Sinai are safe at the moment.

Similarly those in South Sudan do their thing every day with little, or no fanfare and certainly not much about them in the Aussie press to let the general public know what they are doing and the risks they are taking on our behalf. 

We all know that the Tarin Kowt Base is being closed down but we don't hear much about it.  In many of the emails I am receiving it is obvious that the workloads are great and the hours are long.  The troops don't complain.  It is what it is and they just roll up their sleeves and get on with it.   They are having to do more with less and are having to work harder to keep morale up.  And it is only going to get worse.  My most reliable correspondents are very pushed for time and emails are very short and to the point - I just appreciate receiving them at all.  

All the more reason for us to make sure we get quilts and laundry bags to them so that they know we appreciate them and are thinking of them.  A Commander remarked that our quilts and laundry bags are a constant VISUAL reminder of the support from home.  Someone else said all those from other nations are green with envy and he reckons they wish they were Australian!  

Job well done I reckon.  Let's keep it up and this week's effort is a good start!

Congrats everyone!

Today I am very grateful to Kerry Jeffs who I had not met before today, although we had exchanged emails and chatted on the phone a couple of time.  Kerry came on her day off and helped me pack up 15 quilts and get them to the Post Office.  I didn't quite make the 18 because although I have a few quilts that require addresses and they have not come through in time.  Never mind they will go next week.  I could not have done it without Kerry though so big thanks Kerry!!!

The tally so far.  

44 quilts this week and 32 laundry bags.

929 quilts and 1705 laundry bags for 2013.

1936 quilts and 3069 laundry bags in total.

Louise

Lynn

Help me out.  It is getting hard to keep track of who made which quilt top.  I think this one was Jan M and friends.  Please tell me if I am wrong.

Cheryl D

Louise - front 

And the back

This is Blocks of the months and some of the blocks sent in four our Mystery Quilt - the blue sports one we didm

Love the Airfraft instrument backing - thanks Liz B!

Louise

Lynn

Angela

A gorgeous orange and green front 

 and a delicious orange backing.

If this quilt looks extra long that is because it is for a fellow who is six foot eight!

Anne S

Judy and the Clyde Street Quilters of Kempsey sent the next two quilts off. 

Debbie

The yellow swatch is hiding the name :-)

Holden lover?????    No???? 

Diane 

Evelyn

Fay

Janine

Jenny and Gale

Me

Joan

Julie Ann

Liz

Lynn

Maddy - one of my personal favourites this week

Margaret R - another personal favourite!  How cute are those owls!!!

Nicky

Peggy

Some of you might remember the blocks in this one.  This is our red, white and black Mystery Quilt.  Doesn't it look awesome!

And the back - see, all blocks were used

Two of these quilts were sent off by Sandra

 Another by Sandra

and a third but I embellished this one to suit the recipient.

This is the badge for 5 Aviation Regiment

Valhalla Talking Threads

Helen McGregor and the Glenhaven Probus Craft Group 

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