A level sewing surface

Polly mentioned Cindy's sore shoulders when MQing might be from sewing on her dining room table. Maybe it's just me, but I have my chair seat as high as it can go with my legs resting against the support under my sm. I still get sore shoulders cuz my upper body isn't positioned high enough... so I am still reaching upwards to MQ. I couldn't use a pillow to sit higher cuz my legs would get mushed against the support.

So, is it just me or do y'all find this to be a problem as well?

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Reply to
Leslie& The Furbabies in MO.
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You're not alone Leslie -- I have the same problem. Maybe if I had skinny legs it wouldn't be a problem. Since I am "larger than the average bear" WITH the thighs to match, I can never get my upper body high enough without having my legs crammed up against the underside of my sewing table. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

Reply to
Tia Mary

Leslie, since you have power tools and are not afraid to use them, why don't you solve that problem? What would you need to raise, lower or alter =) to take care of that? I'm thinking there are only two of us here that are skinny. You'd be making a lot of quilters very happy if you could resolve the 'larger than the average bear' troubles. Hanging the SM from the rafters might work but there just may be an easier way. Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

Reply to
Joanna

I got a cheap ($99) folding table made by Arrow to set the machine into - it has a platform that drops down. I was amazed for the price how sturdy it is - no wobbling or shimmying, and the difference in MQing is incredible. No more hunched up shoulders.

I did the same thing previously with an el-cheapo dining table I got at a flea market for $20 - we "altered" it with a reciprocating saw. I didn't have room in my new house for that setup, though, so I used a regular table for a couple of years until I realized my shoulders were killing me, and I found the folding table.

If you just elevate your chair, then your feed may be dangling - and that's not good work posture. Your non-pedal foot should be flat on the floor, and you should get the pedal as close as you need to have your pedal foot leg as close to straight down as you can.

Reply to
TinaR

This is a constant problem for me. I am tall and the Horn sewing chair I bought just does not go high enough, so I only use it at the computer. I have a couple of drafting chairs that go higher, but I am forever adjusting both of the seats up and down, and the back support up and down, in and out.

I also think that the Horn tables with the inserts place the machines too far back for me. Originally I had the Bernina in a non-Horn table that I bought with the machine. Don't recall the brand name, but I don't think they're even made anymore. It had a recessed shelf and a particle board insert to make a flat surface. That table set the Bernina closer to the front. Now I use that table for my embroidery machine.

Another problem involves using the knee lift with the Bernina and with the Janome 6500. The Bernina is now set in a small Horn table that I originally bought with the Pfaff that's not currently in use. (I do swap out the Pfaff with the Bernina from time to time - each machine has it's strengths and weaknesses.) The Bernina knee lift is too far away from my knee and the Janome knee lift is too close. For the Bernina I am always reaching and bumping my knee into the Horn table support - ouch! For the Janome, I am always bumping either the knee lift when I don't want to -- or the support in *that* Horn table, which is a bigger table for the bigger machine. Still, that darn shelf support seems to be in exactly the wrong place.

When I used the small Horn table with the Pfaff, the support thing wasn't an issue because there is no knee lift. If I had put the Bernina (with the knee lift) into that Horn table before I bought the *other* Horn table for the Janome (with a knee lift), I would have noticed the problem of the knee-bruising support, and might have investigated other options.

I've tried putting the Bernina knee lift into the Janome and vice versa and it sort of works, but I'm not sure it makes a lot of difference. I've tried padding the support. It's less of a problem when I'm not wearing shorts (like now!) I could put the Bernina back into the original table, which was made differently and had no support, but that would mess up my embroidery set-up, and also I have rolling drawer carts under that table which wouldn't fit under the Horn table if I switched.

In short, I just switch around and adjust my chairs, over and over and over - and nothing really works except taking frequent breaks. And saying bad words and rubbing my poor knee!

Iris

Reply to
I.E.Z.

The ergonomic arm position is to bend your elbows at about 90 degrees, without scrunching up your shoulders, and the machine should be close enough to your body so your upper arms stay back by your sides (i.e. you don't have to lean forward).

So if you just sit >Polly mentioned Cindy's sore shoulders when MQing might be from sewing on

Reply to
Roberta

I have a low sewing machine table (26"). I got it after reading Lois Hallock's books on ergonomics and organization for quilters. The last quilt I did still left my shoulders sore and achy.

I think it is the nature of the beast. It is difficult on the body but the results are worth the finished quilt!

Lenore

Reply to
lenorel95

The only way to solve the problem would be to have a SM that is SKINNY! Even if I set the *(#$*$ machine on my lap, it's still a bit too high for me to be able to work at for any great length of time -- especially when doing free motion! It's a function of FAT thighs -- LOLOL! If the plate of the sewing machine was a lot closer to the tabletop, THAT would be just the ticket. Unfortunately, I doubt if they could make a SM that sat "lower to the ground!" CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

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Reply to
Tia Mary

My favorite cartoonist is Jim Unger who does the Herman funnies. One time the wife commanded that he fix her ironing board so it would be kinder to her rather over-endowed figure. He sawed a half-moon out of it. There wasn't much left of the ironing board. Here's a Herman, maybe, if you forget which cartoonist I'm talking about.

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Reply to
Polly Esther

YES!!! Someone who understands what I have been trying to describe :-))). The problem, at least for me, is NOT related to the table height or the chair height. It's that I have fat thighs and can't fit my "parts" under the sewing table when I have my adjustable chair at the correct height! I have to lower the chair so I can ge my legs under the table but then the machine is really too high for me to be comfy. There's no way to change this except to lose a bunch of weight (yeah, right, like *that's* gonna happen). I suppose I could try to invent some sort of spatial dimensional alternate universe thing-a-ma-bob so that my sewing machine and my body are in this dimension but my fat thighs are in another dimension. Yep -- THAT is the answer and about as likely as me losing enough weight -- especially in my thighs -- that I fit them underneath the table with my sewing chair adjusted to the proper sewing height :-) -- LOLOLOL! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

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Reply to
Tia Mary

You need to cut a hole in the floor so you can lower your legs into it! Of course you might need to put sandpaper on your chair so you don't slide off into the hole! LOL

Reply to
KJ

On Mar 4, 9:29=A0am, "Leslie& The Furbabies in MO." wrote:

I will offer a suggestion for the construction of a table. If you can get a table top that is solid wood, or a solid core door and place it atop whatever support you can get that will leave the surface of your sewing area, between 23" and 26" you might find that more than adequate. The ideal solution is a commercial sewing table that is adjustable and the machine is a flat bed and fits flush with the surface. You can make the domestic approximation by constructing a box that is screwed and glued to the underside of the table top and cut out an area, of the top, that fits the profile of the sewing machine you are going to use, and set the height of this box to allow the bed of the machine to come to the height of the table top surface, no more and no less. I have experimented a lot with different table heights and find that for me, the perfect height is 26". Note that the machines I use are free arm machines, and sit almost 29-1/2" to the stitch plate height, from the floor. I did inset a flat bed Janome machine into a table I built and it was 28" at the finished height, but I don't do free motion quilting and have no need for an inset machine and I had to get rid of that table, due to space considerations, and now use the Janome on a standard height 26" table with an extension fitted table for the machine when I need to have more fabric support while quilting. Everybody has slightly different body shapes that will dictate certain modifications to these dimensions, but they are a pretty good place to start with. I think it is most important that you get a height that agrees with your own body dimensions. There are certain measurements that are considered Standard within the furniture industry. If you want to check that theory, measure the seat height on a number of chairs in your house and you will find that they are all about the same height from the floor. Some of the exceptions are Barcalounger type chairs, but they are still pretty close. But kitchen type chairs are usually uniform. Hope this helps.

John

Reply to
John

What about one of those plastic adjustable tables that I was talking about? A lot of my friends put the shorter table in front of the dining table or whatever and that is what holds the bulk of the quilt.

Cindy

Reply to
teleflora

I have chicken legs, but they are so short that if I raise my chair, they dangle and that isn't comfortable either.

Cindy

Reply to
teleflora

Maybe we need to learn to do this standing up.

Cindy

Reply to
teleflora

Leslie: What do you mean by support? Is that the platform on which the SM sits, or is it the apron on the front of the table? If the latter, you could probably cut part of it away. Good luck. PAT

Reply to
Pat in Virginia

Howdy!

I find my chair in the back room is much better at keeping my arms at an ergonomically correct position while quilting. But sometimes I want to sit on the sofa in the front room while quilting; it's usually cooler in there in the afternoons, year-round. So I pull up the little footstool (last thing my dad made for me) and scooch over to the end of the sofa, set the sewing basket beside me, position the bright light over my shoulder, and away we go! Handquilting means not having to hunch up to the sewing surface.

R/Sandy - prefer the d> The ergonomic arm position is to bend your elbows at about 90 degrees,

Reply to
Sandy Ellison

The 2X10 shelf upon which the lowered sm sits is right on top of my thighs. If I raise the chair any more my legs are smooshed against it. And I still have to raise my shoulders to MQ. Same as Tia Mary. We can't raise the chair seat high enough and still get our legs under the lowered sm.

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Reply to
Leslie& The Furbabies in MO.

Cindy said: Maybe we need to learn to do this standing up.

-------------------------------------------------- I took a class from a woman in my guild who does beautiful quilting. She only sews standing up. Says she never got the hang of doing it sitting down.

She's average height and skinny, so it wasn't dictated by weight issues. It was an all day class and my back was screaming, but she was still full of energy.

Denise

Reply to
Denise in NH

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