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A week before my birthday, I announced on the Quiltart and Inkjet lists that I would be turning 50 on the 26th of October.  I noted that when I turned 40, there was no celebration because I didn’t ask for one.  This time I was making it clear:  I want to celebrate, and I invited anyone who was interested to help.  Could I get 50 cards in the mail? Not only did I hit 50, but the cards kept coming.  My plan was to save and open them on the 26th.  Monday was a very quiet evening.  In that quiet, I sat, opened, and read each card.  I cannot even begin to express how much I enjoyed it.

Many had thoughtful notes about the joys of the fifth decade of life.  Others thanked me for some help I offered in the past.  Such notes were very nice surprises.

The cards above were all created by the sender, some made of fabrics, others with photographs, one even included an ATC.

I also received gorgeous stitched fabric cards.  The top left is from Louise Schiele, the top right from Gerrie Congdon, and the lower left is from Janice Simpson.  I was wow’ed when I realized that the face of Janice’s  card included prints of me on fabric from a couple years back when I won a major award at the IQA show.  Janice’s job was taking a group of students to see the exhibits, and her pictures showed me talking to them!  The bottom right is from Helen Kusnitz.

Jenny Williams made the card on the left.  Bettyann Shaver made the card in the center.  She let me know that turning 70 is fun!  Glayds Schulz made the card on the right, also noting that she loves my book <g>.

Heather Lair from Gimli Manitoba made the card on the left.  Marie Johansen the one in the center, and Joni Barriere made the card on the right and sweetly noted she reads everything I write (who knew?) <g>.

Several of the cards had very festive, creative fronts, such as the card from Marie Johansen above.

Sylvia Weir made the card on the left, and Carol Larson the one on the right.

Beth Wheeler made a larger piece showcasing her beautiful inkjet printed digital design which was heavily machine quilted.  The other side was made with a hand-dyed fabric.

Trina Weller totally surprised me with very cool scissors.  They have a very sharp curved top which I am sure will get quite a workout (considering how much I reverse stitch). They were wrapped in a piece of fabric that she marbled.  I initially didn’t know who sent it as the card wasn’t signed nor was the envelope addressed.  At first I thought it came from friend who lives in Pennington (as my only clue was a Pennington postmark).  However, it wasn’t from her.  My next thought was Trina, as I knew she lives in Pennington.  When I wrote her, I learned it was from her!  This was totally unexpected and extremely appreciated.

Kathy Brevig sent another incredible surprise: A framed piece of her artwork from a series of thread collages she calls Tangles.  It was accompanied by a long letter that nearly bought me to tears.  The photo of the work doesn’t do the art justice.

In addition to these items, I received many ecards and emails which I also printed and  read on Monday.  While I realize that I didn’t thank everyone by name in this post, and that today I received a couple more cards that aren’t showing in the photos above, please know that I am deeply grateful to everyone who took the time to help me celebrate.  You all made my birthday extremely special!  Who knows, maybe I’ll even figure out something cool to make with them.  A journal?

I’ll close this post with the final paragraph of a poem that Sherry Boram, who is 70, wrote for me:

So please accept my hugs in a rhyme
May your birthday be a wonderful time
Enjoy the greetings that you will get
And remember, to come, the best is yet!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 10:46 pm and is filed under Misc. Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.