Humpty’sTulips
December 2023

This year has been a year of many changes. Back in January, my Dad relocated to an assisted living facility that is 200 miles closer to me than where he had previously lived: he’s now about 15 miles away. With him being closer, I now not only get the time to hangout and visit with him more often, but I’m also available to help him with his doctor’s appointments, which are abundant. As such, my time has become much more limited this year for my hobbies — sailing, sewing and gardening.

But, this wasn’t the only “change” for the year. At the beginning of September, while doing some landscaping with rocks* to create a border in my garden, when positioning a rock, it unexpectedly shifted on me, and it ended up crushing the distal bone in my right ring finger. Yeap, unfortunately, I’m right hand dominant. So, no sailing, no sewing and no gardening for over two months. Yikes, that’s an eternity.

Five fragments broken off the distal bone required two surgeries and five pins to put Humpty back together again. And, lots of occupational therapy, which still continues. I was able to begin <slowly and carefully> sewing and gardening in November, and in addition to this quanket, I was able to get some tulip bulbs planted in my garden.

I decided to create a memory of this year’s journey, and tie my love of gardening and sewing together by making this tulip quilt. It’s not a bad memory, but just a “life happens” memory that I want to document here in my blog.

Most of the fabrics I used are from my scraps bins. Some, including the heart fabric used in the top and bottom borders, was some I received from Jocelyn over at Happy Cottage Quilter. I finished this as a fleece-backed quanket and it has been donated to the Good Shepard Shelter, a long-term treatment and education-based shelter for women and their children who are healing from domestic violence.

I also want to acknowledge all the help that my husband provided during the time that my right hand was out of commission. He took on the full roll of being chef and sous chef – we usually work together as a team to get dinner on the table. He was also great at taking instructions on gardening chores that needed to be tended to – if you’re a gardener, you understand that some things need to be done, regardless if your hands are working or not.

And, fret not, we returned to sailing in November as well. We won’t have as many ‘sail days’ as last year, but heck, that’s okay. I’m always thankful for any and all the sail days we get!

*rock or boulder, that is the question – it seems that boulders are rocks that are >50 pounds. I believe my “culprit rock” is somewhere in the 40-50 pound range. I’ll never know, as I have absolutely no intentions of handling that rock any further to determine its weight!