Ritzy, I never use steam or water in my iron, so it only weighs about 5 pounds! I like using a spray bottle like you. Then I decide where and how much water is used. Besides, every time I tried to put water in an iron, it went potty where I didn't need it!

The webinar I watched was Quilting Ergonomics by Michael Engman. I'm supposed to be able to access the power point now, but I haven't had time to figure it out. I was taking care of my mom yesterday. And I always come home so tired afterwards!

Regular exercise is what works for me. And the key is regular!

I'm afraid to try one of those diets that tells you what you are allergic to. I'm allergic to so many things, I'd probably come out with being able to eat lettuce and water. Though I like and eat/drink plenty of it! But I sure enjoy cheese, wine, shrimp, etc, etc!

Back to quilting and stretching!

Geneva

Thanks for the info Beverly. I love food, but I dislike the pain more. I will look for the book and see if I think I can do it. I tried going gluten free, but couldn't stick with that. My niece had a food sensitivity test done and she has many foods to avoid. She can really tell a difference when she eats the bad for her stuff. Her's is a digestive problem, not joint pain, but I guess it is the same idea.

Beverley, eating real food is always much healthier than factory made junk. I subscribe to the idea, that if you cannot pronounce the ingredients on the list, it probably isn't going to be any good for you.

Sharon, in December I saw this lady on our local PBS station and she made sense to me. I checked out her book from the library and read it from cover to cover. The book is "The Virgin Diet" by J. J. Virgin, CNS, CHFS. I have lost weight following this, which is good, but my whole purpose of doing it is pain management. And it has absolutely stopped joint pain for me. Stage1 is the elimination of the certain foods from your diet, stage 2 is the re-introduction of them one at a time to see what is the culprit, and stage 3 is managing your results from now on. All doable and not requiring eating weird stuff, just ordinary food. She has a protein drink available for those that want it, but I have not used that. I hope your physical therapy helps you too.

Geneva--I love my light-weight travel iron (which is the only one I use for quilting). I have to use a spray bottle for starch of moisture but let me tell you--the light weight makes all the difference.

Beverly, what program are you following. Food certainly does play a part. As a matter of fact I am starting physical therapy tomorrow for neck and back pain, and maybe loose a few pounds. It's for 2 months and hopefully I won't have a heart attack, hehe.

Sharon in CO

Hi Geneva,
What webinar was it? Some webinars (like the Bernina ones) can be watched online later.

When I had to wear a boot on my left foot after breaking my left foot, it caused a lot of problems in my right hip. I am trying to postpone hip replacement. You are smart to try to minimize further problems by using the foot petal with your left foot.

A heavy steam iron caused shoulder and neck pain for me - especially when ironing a lot of yardage.
I got a steam generator. The water is in the generator, not the iron. The iron itself is much lighter than a regular iron. It eliminated the right shoulder and neck pain.
Another thing that helped was to lower the ironing board surface so my arm/wrist holding the iron was parallel to the ironing board - the same ergonomic way they recommend for using computer. Having the ironing board surface that low felt a odd at first, but it helped right away.

Speaking of computers, I had painful repetitive stress injury in my wrist and hand on my job. The Dept of Rehabilitation sent in a consultant, who told them to get me a track-ball instead of a mouse. It made a world of difference. After I got that trackball, I could type without pain.

Judith

I am following a program where you eliminate seven specific ordinary foods from your diet for 21 days, then re-introduce them one at a time to see which of those (if any) are causing body/joint inflammation. I decided I could do anything pretty much for that short length of time. I'm about half way in to the 21 days. I no longer have any joint pain whatsoever. I won't know for a bit which food it is that has caused the inflammation, but I won't be eating it any more when I do find out! It's been quite interesting realizing how much better I've felt as I started this. What I have also learned is that you'd be surprised at what is added to foods just by carefully reading the ingredient labels.

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

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

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.

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 !

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

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