Fall Slow Stitching

Or I could say "Slow Fall Stitching" or "Slow Stitching Fall." And any of them could be appropriate. It is the season of fall--well, almost. In my state, anything after Labor Day is pretty much fall. And the stitching I'm doing is fall, as in a fall wall hanging. And I am stitching. Barely. (More on that in a moment.) And I am slow. Oh, am I so slow. 

You see, fall has special meaning for me right now. About 10 days ago, I took a fall. It was a case of distracted bicycling. I was looking at a billboard while taking a ride on a path near our home. Then suddenly, I realized that I was headed right for one of those posts that they put in the middle of paths for I don't know what reason. Maybe for caution, or to keep cars off the path? Who knows? I overcorrected, and in a hot second that lasted forever, I fell over. My shoulder took the full force of the fall. My bike is fine, but me? Not so much.

I broke the ball at the top of my upper left arm bone. I'm told that's the humerus bone, but there's nothing humorous about it. (Yup, had to throw that in there.) Anyway, there are a couple of fractures there as well as some splintering. The usual treatment for this kind of injury is about 6 weeks of wearing a sling followed by therapy, but those splinters are something of a concern. So now I am waiting for review of results of a CT scan to determine if some surgery is needed. I'll find out late tomorrow (I hope). 

I am mostly right handed, but I write with my left hand, not that actual penmanship figures highly in my life right now. But really, most of what we do is two-handed or at least two-sided--even getting up from a chair or sitting down. So this has me in a pickle. I can't do two of my favorite activities right now: biking or quilting. A third activity is quickly zooming to the top of the list, too: washing myself. Instant road to insanity. 

But I do have a fall quilt I've been slow stitching on for quite awhile. It's pretty small, and I'm working on the outer edges. So, determined quilter that I am (aren't we all?), I've been figuring out a work-around subbing in lots of pillows for my left arm. I'm using a very small, square hoop (no, I guess, it's technically a frame, not a hoop), and if I keep the part I'm quilting only a hand's width from the bottom of the frame. I can get my left hand under it supported by the pillows and quilt normally with my right. 

Here's a picture to prove it.

And here's one that shows the border better.

I'm doing this pretty much free hand, and it's going to be slightly wonky anyway, so if I get a little off track, I'll just remember that I was doing this when I thought I'd have to lay off quilting for 6 weeks or more.

I've only quilted about 8 inches this way so far, but I'm determined to do it so, so slowly or not. 

Meanwhile, I've downloaded the Quiltography app for my ipad, and have been happily doing virtual quilt making with my index finger. I had read about this app from Bernie at Needle and Foot. You can read her post about it here. If I hadn't broken my shoulder I might never have downloaded it, because I'm a technophobe, so there's that silver lining. It's remarkably easy to use, and fun! And I'm not getting paid to say this.

I'm really hoping I get semi-good news tomorrow, and that I'll be able to avoid surgery because I'd hate to lose the progress I've made these ten days, but I have to focus on what will ultimately bring the best outcome. My blog posts might become more irregular than they already are, but please hang in there with me. I'll try to put something up sometime each week.

If you'd like to see the rest of this quilt, click on the Fall Maple Quilt label at either the bottom of this post or on the sidebar. Oh, and just so you know, I think from now on I'll be referring to fall the season as autumn. Don't need any more reminders of falling this fall--er, autumn.

I'm linking up today with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts. I won't take time to put her button on my site yet. I'm having a hard enough time keyboarding with one hand on this post (I keep mixing up the Shift and Enter keys), but I'll put one up when I can. Just click on her link.

Have a good week everybody, and if you bike, don't bike distracted!