I am starting to think that height could be a factor here. It's all well and good to tell someone to raise your chair so your shoulders or arms are flat on the sewing service, but if that raises you short little legs up off the floor you can't reach the foot pedal-LOL! I have my chair as high as I can get w/out my feet being off the floor, the only alternative I can think of is to get my DH to cut a few inches off the legs of my sewing table. Sounds a bit drastic but I think it may work. I think some of my other troubles are coming from a bad back (5 surgeries to date) and a bad shoulder(2 surgeries and waiting on a cortisone shot). I already use gloves and yes I find they help a lot, but are not the end all and be all of FMQ.