Prism99

When I quilted on my domestic sewing machine, I found that quilting standing up was much easier on my body than quilting sitting down. Standing up I could quilt for much longer periods and walk away without having aches and pains for several days after. Standing up, I could quilt for several hours every day. Sitting down, if I quilted longer than two hours, I would have to take several days off to recover (neck and shoulder pain, and I remember pain down the center of my back). I tried lots of different things to make sitting down better -- including periodic walks and stretches, the back-weight thingie with straps from Nancy's Notions, etc. They helped a little. Quilting standing up helped a *lot*.

I placed my sewing machine on my cutting table to quilt standing up. My machine is a Bernina 1230, which does not have a button. The cord on my sewing machine pedal was *just* long enough to place on the floor. Perhaps the ergonomics of other sewing machine pedals is different, but I had no problems with using the pedal for machine quilting. The Bernina pedal is rather large; maybe that makes a difference.

One thing I did that improved my quilting was to make a styrofoam "surround" for my sewing machine, based on the Youtube videos for how to make a cheap sewing/quilting table. After placing my machine on the cutting table (I have a large sturdy one with a height that hits me about 4 inches below the waist), I would place the styrofoam surround so my machine surface was large and flat.

Now that I have a midarm frame setup (Voyager/Hinty), I am in heaven. It's ***so*** much easier for me than trying to manhandle a quilt through a domestic arm. I did find a little stiffness in my back after my first quilting sessions on the frame, but that has gone away. I typically do not quilt on the frame for more than 2 hours or so at a time. If I were quilting long hours for a business, I would invest in a gel pad (currently am on a concrete floor) and take more frequent breaks.

Hope this helps!

Edit: It occurs to me that the height of the person, the height of the table, and the length of the pedal cord would all affect the comfort of quilting standing up. I am 5'6" and the combo of table height and cord length worked for me. Someone who is taller could have a problem because the cord might not be long enough for the table height needed for comfort. Someone who is shorter would not have this problem.