Tense shoulders
 

Will I ever get to the place where, while quilting, I don't have to remind myself every few minutes to relax my shoulders? Sometimes they're almost up around my ears!

Daffy

Wine helps. And chocolate.

My friend made the comment one time that I never look intense when I machine quilt that I don't hunch or jut, I just sit and sew. I don't feel like it's something to get stressed over. I think approaching it that way helps me keep a good posture.

I do the stick out the tongue thing like a kid along with the shoulders when I FMQ. Its not about stress, its about intensity.

I guess I don't have the intensity gene, just lousy reflexes. I never open my mouth when I put on mascara. I didn't know that was a wow thing until when I was young and the other girls noticed. LOL They kept trying but said it was automatic to have have the mouth open. It's an intense simple thing that most females do. Also I never squint. A bright light or sunlight when driving, I never squint. That amazes my DH. A bright light hits his eyes and he reacts like he's been body slammed.

My problem is that when the table/machine/chair are all at the correct height - i.e. I am quilting with my arms at 90deg - my head is too high. I have to crouch down a little in order to see the full quilting area. If I set it up so I can see everything, my shoulders hurt way too much and my quilting isn't smooth. I have a long body and my proportions are just off from the table/machine dimensions that I can't win.

When I find myself doing that it becomes time for a heating pad that relaxes me for the next time around.

I actually got into the habit a while back of making sure I stand up and stretch after every block sewn. When I'm drinking coffee or tea when I'm quilting, I don't fill up the cup completely, so it forces me to get up out of my chair more to get another fill-up. While I'm up, I take long, hard stretches, fingers to toes, bend over deep and hang my hands down to relax my spine and put it back in place and then when I sit down again, I always take a second to make sure my posture is correct, roll my shoulders back and start sewing again.

I've got a sciatica problem that likes to light up the left side of my back from my neck to my toes if I sit too long and then get up to move, so I do what I can to make sure I don't upset that nerve. I just don't like making that nerve mad and believe me, there are times where it's just downright angry at me and I've had moments where it takes my breath away, so I'm super careful.

Railroadersbrat, great advice, will share with my sister she too has a very angry sciatica!!!