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The Danger that IS Sewing and Quilting!
DUH DUN DUM!!!!
Okay this is one of those “this will never happen to me” situations. I’ve giggled at my sewing machine’s manual with all its warnings that say “or you may be injured”. I have heard of people using rotary cutters and nicking and slicing (OUCH!) fingers and hands. I’ve read about people sewing over their fingers! Needles in fingers, ER visits, all of it!! I have just been over here saying “well it’s a good thing I’m never going to be injured while sewing! Because I’m overly careful and worry!”
No avoiding it. You’re risking your life any time you sit down to sew.
Famous. Last. Words.
On Sunday, February 9th I was in the shower, because I’m a human and I shower, and all of a sudden, I pulled a muscle. It was as if my arm and shoulder just fused together and my head wouldn’t move. It was not fun at all. I do not recommend it. So, I decided it was best to cool it or at least tone it down for my exercise. I go to zumba and step aerobics at my local YMCA a lot of days of the week. I started to feel like I was on the mend, and I went to step again, and everything was fine until we started to stretch and I felt like my arm was trying to pull itself off of my body. I invested in a hot water bottle, which is amazing by the way. It’s not like one of those heated pads with beads or seeds or corn inside. This sucker is hot, and when one side starts to cool, you flip it and somehow the other side is still hot! I don’t know what kind of magic it’s using but I love it.
My quilt guild meeting was on Saturday the 15th, and I was really excited because we were having a free-motion quilting lesson. I have dabbled in free-motioning, and I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos. I mean, a lot…of YouTube videos. So an actual in person lesson and “how to” was what I felt was the final step I needed. I was very pleased! I think for a first real effort at stippling I did pretty well. Other times I’d made a little flower, and I’ve written my name in sort of cursive. I knew loading and unloading my machine in my little rolly tote wouldn’t be so great on my shoulder, but it would surely be fine, right?
Pretty little FM-flower!
Sort of cursive Ashley!
WRONG. Sunday morning I woke up and it was much worse. I stayed on the hot water bottle a lot. I have figured out what it was that has rekindled the injury. When you free-motion, you move the fabric around, and the way I did it I think I rotated and moved my shoulder too much for the situation it’s been in. I haven’t really been able to sew much either, simply because it hurt so badly to move my arm for more than a few minutes at a time.
But not all hope is lost! It’s been almost a full two weeks since the initial injury, and I would say I’m at 97% this morning. My biggest pains lately have been when I look to the left, but now even that has subsided greatly.
This week, was also my birthday! YES! I love my birthday! Everyone saying happy birthday to me! I get things! Okay I love getting things, I think I may have mentioned that before…I like when people even say they want to give me things…but then actually getting things is probably the best thing ever!!!! So, for my birthday this year I got something so awesome, SO AMAZING!! When I sew, I like to jam out. I mean, I kind of blare my music to where you can hear it all over the house, and my husband is like uh, can you turn it down? So then I use my kitty ear headphones, which were another birthday present from either last year or the year before, and are amazing and cute and I love them and they’re from Japan!!!! Well, the only problem is when I use my headphones I’m tethered. I have this cord hanging between me and my phone, so I put my phone on my sewing table but then my arm fights with it while sewing, so I put my phone in my pocket and this and that and the other and it’s kind of a big cat-astrophe. (you get it? because they’re kitty headphones?! YES!) So, I have been thinking about these bluetooth speakers. My husband thought the same thing, and bam! I have the CUTEST little bluetooth speaker, and while it is small, it is LOUD! I recommend it highly. It’s a Logitech mini boom, it’s maybe 4″x3″ or so, but it is SO loud!!! Which, I love…I can’t listen to Kanye and Pink Floyd and Jewel (yes, all of them) on a medium to low-level. When I go HAM, jam out to Money, or even get a little emotional singing Adrian, it needs to be loud!!! (If you don’t know what going HAM is, just know it’s an explicit version of going hard.) And…we can’t leave out the “it’s all coming back to me now” karaoke sessions that are obviously going on in my sewing room.
Gettin my sew on!!
The single best thing ever. ❤
I hope you’re all having a lovely week as well!
Until next time, Happy Sewing!
ah-ha! moments
Do you ever do something you thought up yourself that actually works and think “wow, I’m a genius” because I did, and I am just thrilled to bits. As you may know, I’ve been making these “jelly roll bags” and they are very simple and very fun. Well my husband took one to work with him to show the women that work in his office, and at least one of them said that they’d like it better if it had a zipper pocket and some way to keep it closed. I agreed, totally. The only things stopping me were a) zippers are scary and b) what am I going to do to keep this giant opening closed?
Well I finally found a video on YouTube that explained how to put a zipper pocket in, in a way that I understand and was easy…ish. So now that was out-of-the-way, and I’ve played with a couple of zippers now, so they’re not as scary as they were…now comes how to close this bag. I have used magnetic snaps before and they are great, but I didn’t think it was going to be enough to just put one in the lining in the middle. I mean this is an eleven (or so) inch opening, I needed something a bit more substantial.
I had an idea of trimming off the side of the bag and using it as some sort of flap. How I was going to fandangle this flap was beyond me, but I knew this was involved. I cut off about three inches on the side, so that each of the rows of patterns were going to be included in this flap. Then I got some scrap of the lining, sewed them together with the magnet snap attached to the lining, flipped it inside out, top stitched around the edges, and viola!
Now, how am I going to attach this thing? I didn’t want to just sew it to the outside of the bag or make a patch or something. I want it to look good, not like some piece of garbage. So, very bravely, I cut a slit into my outside part of the bag, just big enough to slip the “flap” inside. Then I zigzag stitched over this a couple of times, checked it with a good tug, and BAM IT WAS ATTACHED! And it looks good!
Okay I know how silly I am, you don’t have to remind me. It’s the little accomplishments that make me jump for joy.
It looked exactly like this in my mind…
Anyhow, I hope everyone is going to have a great weekend! Oh! Before I forget! I saw the President yesterday! Okay not close up…but I did see him landing at the airport from my office window. I even saw air force one on my way home and got a really good picture.
Happy sewing everyone!
Cute Fluffin Stitch 