Paying an Arm (But Fortunately Not a Leg)

(Me + Very nice new sling)

So today was the first day since "it" happened I felt well enough to talk/type about it. You see, I may have gotten a bit overconfident about the not losing fingers thing because...

Well, I can no longer use my left arm. Whoops.

Fortunately, it isn't because I'm really thaaaat bad at this entire sewing business. I have a condition called osteochondroma, and although it sounds bad, it usually isn't. For me, it causes bone bumps (known as exostoses [singular: exostosis] or tumors) to grow. These exostoses can grow anywhere, but mine like growing on my growth plates (it's part of the reason why I'm so short) and right over my nerves.

Long story short, there's an exostosis in my shoulder, and it got a little bit annoyed. So ever since Monday night, it's been pressing quite enthusiastically on the nerve that controls my left hand, and now, my hand, and really my arm in general, is out of commission until the tumor comes out sometime in May. Because my arm isn't really doing much at the moment, my doctor prescribed me a really nice sling, which keeps my arm pretty much immobilized, which is cool, I guess! I just have to edit my game plan a bit to get everything done, so let's get started!

(Rearranging squares...)

-- Game Plan Revision --

I sewed my first strip on Tuesday, which was much much easier. However, even keeping the fabric aligned made my shoulder ache, my elbow complain, and my hand throb. I realized that if sewing was so difficult, then cutting would be a nightmare (not that it wasn't when both arms still worked!) So once I finished my first strip, my mentor and I sat down and revised my game plan.

Instead of working on two quilts, we decided to just stick to one, but make it more decorative. To do this, I decided that I would  cut one of the squares in half for strips two and four so those two rows could be shifted over by 4.25 inches. We also considered putting strips of white satin in between each row of blocks, which would make the pattern look a bit more complicated, and also bring the entire quilt together (as I had planned to use white satin fabric for the backing as well). As for the border, we had originally planned on using bias tape, but we decided to pierce together a border from my scraps of fabric, which would be easier on the arm and require less cutting.

Although I didn't intend on changing my project, I think that doing a quilt this way will be more beneficial, as it will allow me more time to heal. It's definitely frustrating, however, because I had a lot of high hopes for this project and now I won't be able to complete everything I wanted to do, and in a way, it feels like giving up on what I wanted to do.

(Putting pieces back together again)