Well my fellow poppy makers … Big round of applause here … you are amazing!!!!!
We have passed the 50,000 poppy milestone …
Marg and I are continually stunned, thrilled and incredibly humbled by your work!!! We still get excited every time we open the mail … and we are still surprised by the variations on the poppy theme. My back room is filling up fast with boxes of poppies as you would imagine, and we are working on the final designs … We are expecting that ultimately we will have in excess of 100,000 poppies … it’s hard to know but when all those local Remembrance Day events are done with and all those community groups that are displaying locally send their collections to us … the numbers will swell to overflowing. YAY! In turn, our installation is obviously going to be much bigger than we initially had planned for and there are a lot of issues to be managed with the change in size … but we are getting very excited about the outcome … and we know you will be astounded.
Loomband Poppies by Zoe Greenhill Aged 10
We have had a number of really wonderful events in recent weeks … First Convoy in Melbourne, The Stitches and Craft Show also in Melbourne and the unveiling of many thousands of beautiful poppies at the First Convoy Commemorative events in and around Albany in Western Australia in the last week. Many of you would have seen the images and are now coming to understand just what we are hoping to achieve with this massive art installation … We hope you are getting as excited about the outcome as we are.
Marg and I are also thrilled that The New Zealand contingent have collected well over the 10,000 beautiful poppies on their way to 18,000 plus … in honour of their ANZAC heroes. What a wonderful international phenomenon this has become.
So on to more practical issues … we have many new collection points coming on board all the time … so if you are wondering whether you have a local collection point to drop your poppies off … check the collection points page on the blog.
If you have sent poppies to us and can’t find your name and dedication on the blog … let us know and we will investigate. Keeping up with this information is detailed and quite time consuming so bear with us … we will get there.
We will be in Federation Square in Melbourne opposite Flinders Street Railway Station (if the weather is good) on 11 November from 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. Bring your hooks/needles and yarn to sit and make with us … if you wish or simply drop by to say hello … and/or drop of your poppies. We look forward to seeing you. If the weather is inclement … we will be downstairs in the Atrium near the Ian Potter Gallery entrance. You can’t miss us.
Keep your eye on the blog and the facebook page for events/workshops/displays.
That’s it for now.
Enjoy making.
5000 POPPIES 
Hi
Wondering if you can send through some samples of displays of the poppies. Really struggling to know how best to display to our community
We are currently making them through our local CWA branch at Hopetoun Victoria and would love to display them at the 11th November Remembrance Day to further promote the project and maybe have more people involved.
In regards to the invitation with the patterns for written information, is it appropriate that we ask for families or friends to contribute their thought to have these recorded and sent through?
Will there be a collection of these tributes made available at some stage?
Looking forward to your reply
Regards and congratulations on a fantastic project that has surpassed all your expectations. Really shows how small things can grow into big things â well done
Sue Afford
0409 833080
So glad to see that Remembrance is alive and well with the ANZACs!
Hi David,
Yes … I must admit I am thrilled and humbled all at the same time with the response to our project … and of course the message it sends to our servicemen and women. It’s been quite a journey for us here at Poppy HQ. I was in Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne at 11.00 a.m. on Remembrance Day this week and the world stood still for a minute. Traffic stopped, people stood still … it was kinda eerie and VERY moving.
Lynn
Hi Lynn
It was indeed a memorable and moving moment of remembrance in Federation Square, the tolling bell, the descent of silence, all motion ceasing, the bugler on the steps of the Cathedral, the planes flying over in formation, and the poppies.
And on a lighter note, lovely to make poppies in the sunshine with the rest of the crew, even if I could only stay a little while.
Katherine