Diabetic Neuropathy and the Foot Pedal

[Lynn K.]

I have a sit-down mid-arm and love using it but am discovering my neuropathy can impair my judgement on when my foot actually touches the pedal so I can control my start-up speed. I have found even finding the pedal difficult sometimes so have engineers a pretty unsophisticated method of building a "fence" the width of the pedal on a 2x4 place just in front of pedal so I know when I've reached it and can then just scootch my foot forward until i'm over it. Then it's just guesswork about how hard I'm pressing.

I'm thankful I only have numbness and no pain with this condition as I know it can be really tough.....

Ideas?

Lynn in TX

[Beverly C.]

Lynn, in the last week or two on another topic, Sue mentioned that she sets her mid-arm speed at 20 percent, then pushes the pedal to the floor and that works for her. I'm new to my sit-down, and remembering Sue's comments, I set my machine today at 30 percent, and basically put the heel of my foot on the pedal because that worked well with the height of my chair and the height of my table. It worked like a charm. I tested it on a little quilt sandwich so I could get the feel of what it would be like doing the filler I thought I'd try, and to test my tension. I finished the wall hanging in no time thanks to Sue's advice! Maybe that would work for you. Prior to doing this, I would get a little (OK, a LOT) frustrated because I couldn't get my hands and needle speed to cooperate with each other!

[Susan B.]

My foot would really start to ache before I played around with how far the foot pedal was from my chair & how I was holding my foot (sometimes, heel up in the air.) For what it's worth, sometimes I'm at 12 to 15%, but my foot is really resting on the pedal.

Hope you figure this out, Lynn! Quilting isn't supposed to hurt, right?

[E.M. T.]

That's how I free motion...Don't know the % on my Viking...I just settled on a speed that worked ,set it and put
the pedal to the floor !!

[E.M. T.]

Lynn--is the neuropathy in both feet? Maybe try learning to use the other foot? I don't have a mid-arm so there may be things I am missing and this wouldn't work.

[Catherine S.]

Lynn, I don't what kind of sewing table or cabinet you have, but you could possible mount the foot pedal to the side and use your knee to push against it. That is the way some of the older machines worked. Hope something works for you and you can sew comfortably.

[Lois B.]

Cathy, That sounds good. Maybe there's a way to use the right knee for the pressor foot and left knee for running the machine.

[Lynn K.]

There are so many good ideas here. I hope it stays "hot" long enough for many to see it as I am CONFIDENT I am not the only one learning to deal with this? Thanks all!