Quilter's Aches and Pains

[Lois B.]

I think I have a new one here. The other night I was very rudely awakened by simultaneous muscle spasms/cramps starting with the muscles over my instep, into the calf muscle in my lower leg and then a muscle going from the inside of my knee all the way up to my inner grion. :sick: :evil: inch: I'll tell you I had one heck of a time stretching all those out. I'd get in a position to relieve one set of muscles only to have that position aggrivate another. :angry: :angry: :angry: Anyway it took me about 24 hours to figure out what I had done to make those muscles scream. It was piecing all those patches for the Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt. I was behind and I was working furiously to get caught up. Carefully, holding my big toe steady but gently on the foot pedal to be precise where precision mattered then putting pedal to the medal when I could did quite a job on all those muscles the entire length of my leg. I was thinking, that's a new one for repetitive motion problems. But you know I bet I am not alone. Am I?

So what am I doing for prevention. Making sure I am drinking plenty of water. I am trying to be more diligent about taking my vitamins and mineral supplements. And as soon as, there is a break in the weather I will find a way to tear myself away from the sewing machine and get my daily walk in the schedule.

[Sharon E.]

Lois, Lisa Calle has a blog, can't remember the name of it, and the last few days she has a link to a video for stretching the neck muscles. Its about 15 minutes long and made such a difference when I did it. I am also suffering from that along with my back. I was diagnosed with arthritis in my back last April. Since I sew for a living, I am really paying attention to moving more, stretching, and also drinking lots of water. There are some great Utube videos for stretching whatever you need to stretch.

Sharon

[Judy B.]

When I'm sewing for long stretches of time, I set a timer to ring every 15 minutes.
That's my signal to do a few stretches and move about for a minute. As I have both
arthritis in my back and degenerative disc disease, it's the only way I can keep mobile
and out of pain.

[Beverly C.]

Judy, that's a good idea. And I bet those 15 minutes go so fast it surprises you when the timer rings.

[Catherine S.]

I am with you all in the pain department. The timer is a great idea to remind us to stretch and move around. I will have to force myself to drink more water. When it is cold I drink more tea or coffee than water. I will check out the Utube videos. My arthritis is in the neck, shoulder, back and lower joints. That accounts for the two knee replacements and the hip replacement. This cold weather does not help with the pain either.

[Catherine S.]

Also, practice learning to use both feet on the foot pedal. I usually use my right foot on the pedal but then read (someplace?) that if you use your non-dominate foot it helps you sit up straighter and takes some of the pressure off your lower back. So, I have learned to use both feet. It really doesn't take that much practice--try it--you might like it! :P

[Catherine S.]

I bought a "Tilt'able" at the big quilt show last fall. It fits under your machine and tilts it towards you so you don't need to hunch over the sewing bed to see exactly what you are doing. Made a big difference in my posture and is much more comfortable to sew for longer periods now.

[Judith A.]

These are great tips.
I will have to get a Tiltable and try to alternate feet with the foot petal. I get back, neck and shoulder pain while sewing. I never thought that drinking more water could help.

If anyone else has any tips about how to minimize pain while sewing, I hope they post them. I bet there are a lot of us in the same boat.

Judith

[Judith A.]

The 'Tilt'able' is not cheap, but I splurged. For an inexpensive alternative, I've heard people say they put a couple of door stop wedges under the back side of the machine to tilt it forward.

[Judith A.]

I can say that door stop wedges work a treat. However I have heard that the really fancy electronic machines don't like being tilted. Don't know if this is true or not, as I don't have a really fancy machine

[Sherry B.]

Sharon, I will look for that video. I have been getting a sore neck and realized almost every activity I do puts pressure in that area. Ritzy, when I got my first Bernina and wanted to use the knee lift, I trained myself to "drive" the machine with my left foot. That is because the sewing machine I learned on didn't have a foot pedal, you used your knee. So I kept hitting the knee lift to make the machine go. Wow! I guess it's kind of like riding a bike and you never forget - who would have thought that 40+ years later that instinct was still there :-)

[E.M. T.]

I do trade feet..depending on whether I have a knee control lift. And I used to use a stack
of old magazines to tilt my Viking ! Big Bernie hasn't given me that problem...yet ! :lol: :lol: :lol:

[brenda h.]

Sherry, I thought I was the only one to try to do that with the knee lift!. The funny thing is, I never sewed on a machine that even had a knee control. I finally took the knee lift off 3 or 4 years ago. I started using it again a few months ago and have not been tempted to use it to drive the machine.

[Sherry B.]

Brenda, could it be that some of us just aren't as coordinated as others? LOL Glad we got it figured out because I do love my knee lift now :-)

[Geneva C.]

I watched a webinar last evening on helping with pain while quilting. It was pretty good. The presenter suggested using door stops to tilt the machine towards you. He also gave several quick stretching exercises to do throughout your sewing day. One interesting thing he said was that after 40 we will feel pain with repetitive motions. Sort of a given, so we must try to do things to help work through the pain.

I'm going to try to use the foot pedal on my left side. Using my right side for the knee lift and foot pedal is killing my left hip!

He also mentioned that using an iron is also stressful on your body. Depending on how much water is in it, the iron could weigh as much as 10 pounds! I felt good about that! Except for my right side neck pain!

Geneva in sunny Washington