Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Stitch In The Ditch

Today I pulled out my oldest UFO (Un-Finished Object) to bring it a step closer to completion. I quickly remembered why I hadn't worked on it for a while.
Feeding something this size through the machine is a pain. I'm just stitching the grid to hold it together at this stage, nothing fancy, but to stop the drag I have to make sure the quilt doesn't hang over the front of the table. That means having a huge amount of quilt bunched up between me and the machine. Then my arms are reaching over the top and down into the hole, and my shoulders start aching very quickly.

How do other people manage this?

8 comments:

Terry said...

Bicycle clips roll the excess quilt tightly and slide the clips over the rolled up quilt. keeps the weigth more even. I also place the ironing board and crairs around the table to help support the weight. good Luck

Vireya said...

Thanks Terry.

I have space behind and beside the machine, it is in front that I have the problem. I am sewing, for example, across the quilt, so I have the width of the quilt in front of the machine when I start, and it gradually goes through and out the back. Even if I start in the middle and sew to the edge, then start in the middle again and sew to the opposite edge, I still have an awful lot of quilt between me and the machine when I start.

Glenda said...

Hang in there, I'm sure it will be worth it. I have a back problem so thats why I have always quilted by hand. Try only sewing for 30 mins at a time. Then get up and do some thing else for 30 mins.

Lynette said...

Last time I tried raising how high I sat, and it helped my shoulders a LOT. It involves give-and-take, though, because it puts your eyes further away from what you're watching. I have a bad shoulder, though, so I'll have to keep doing that if I want to quilt anything for longer that 2 minutes at a time.

kaiteM said...

i'm no help sorry but Terry would know, she does quite a lot and only has limited space. I've not quilted anything larger than a single bed and that was difficult enough. One thing tho, can you put any of it over your shoulder, i tried that once.

Bunny said...

Just do a bit at a time. Always rest in between. You will be happy if you don't rush it.
Good luck

Vireya said...

Thanks for the advice, everyone. You have given me a few things to try out.

Happy, pain-free, quilting to everyone!

Anonymous said...

have you tried another table on your left side Vireya? don't have any experience here, as i find small quilts "a drag", but have heard of others using a card table there
all the best
shirley