AJRed

I broke my left wrist in April. Thank heavens that I am right handed. I am currently bored out my of wits. I usually do a lot of sewing, quilting, and machine knitting, but I am not up to most of that. I have experimented with some paper piecing, and the sewing part is going well.

My biggest problem is cutting. I can't use my left hand to hold down a ruler. I tried a bit yesterday assembling a paper pieced block, and I am hurting pretty bad. I have been trimming those nice little interior pieces with scissors, but am having trouble squaring up the block.

I wonder if any of you have any ideas. I am really getting bored and frustrated. I am doing my PT, but I have a long way to go until I am better. I need some ideas for using pre-cuts that won't take more cutting, or some place to buy some pre-cut quilt kits.

While I have been laid up, I was on jury duty for 9 days. Suffice it to say that it was a case that no one wants to hear, but we found the molester guilty. I would really love to make some charity quilts for our center for abused kids, but I am at a loss.

I would appreciate any ideas that you may have.

Thanks!

AJRed

bearisgray

I'm sorry you broke your wrist - I hope you recover quickly and completely.

Have you tried holding the ruler down with your left elbow? or left forearm?

How is your over-all coordination? For some, if one thing more gets out of kilter - it gets more difficult to do ordinary tasks.

gigi712

Man, you must have have broken it very badly. I broke my right wrist a few months ago, 30 day supply of pain pills, no pt. It didn't hurt that bad at first but now arthritis has set in it does hurt.

So much info online. Look on Moda's website for pattern. Ck google and youtube with "quilting with precuts". That should get you lots of info.

jcrow

If you lay your left arm from wrist to elbow down on ruler and press, it should hold perfectly still for your cutting, I’ve had to cut that way due to an injury and it worked well for me. No problems.

Kelsie

Sometimes you just have to ask for help. I was in too much pain to cut but didn't want to miss my weekly sew-in and my husband stepped up and I told him how to and what I needed cut. Is there a friend or even better a quilter that can spare an hour or two to help. They would sure understand.

nativetexan

I was going to say elbow! I broke mine too and had a metal plate and screws. works fine now. do not over do it!

SHELTIE'SMAMA

I feel for you having broken my right (dominate hand for me ) wrist and somehow managed to keep on teaching thru the 26 week recovery process. I just plain got good at asking for help - not my usual attitude of I'll do it myself. Then that pebbly shelf liner became my second best friend. I had pieces of it all over the house and classroom. This stuff holds with relatively little pressure, can be wrapped around things that can then be held against you oror pressed against a surface to steady something or wrapped around to enlarge whatever your trying to hold so that it becomes possible to hold more firmly. You can also train yourself to do tasks that hurt with the other hand and in some cases that helps. Example the heavy school doors can be opened with the other hand quite easily and painlessly - just had to learn to reach with my left.

Fast forward fifteen years and a pit bull chewed up my dog and the same right hand. Now I had two broken fingers and three sliced open fingers. Somewhere in the six to eight week range I got so bored I just had to figure our how to sew. I had to learn how to feed the material differently to keep the finger that no longer bends from getting knocked around by the little thing that sticks out and bobs up and down. Then I reverted to to the pebbly shelf liner to enlarge handles etc. Then came cutting and I glued (contact cement some tiny pebbly squares to the under side of my ruler) eventually just used dots of contact cement directly on ruler. Then I invested in some straight handled rotary cutters
where I could put the pressure on it from the palm of the hand. Sewed a bazillion 4 patches == no idea of what I was going to do with them BUT I WAS SEWING. Eventually when you lose the cast you will get a brace and wearing it when doing cutting will ease some of the tiring - even when you are no longer using it everywhere else leave it out in the open in the sewing room. I do this to this day when cutting anything that will take longer than 5 min. And lastly use the smallest ruler possible for the job at hand.

MadQuilter

Maybe someone with a die cutter could cut the pieces for you.

Tartan

I don't know if using a wooden cutting board that you could use clamps over the wooden edge and on the ruler to hold it down on the fabric would work? You would need to put wood blocks underneath the board so the bottom of the clamps had someplace to go. I am sorry you broke your wrist and hopefully it will heal up soon.

AJRed

Thanks for the ideas - keep on writing!!

I broke the darn thing 3 days before my 63rd birthday. First broken bone. I also killed my car in the process,thinking I had room to make that left turn, but the Yukon coming towards me said different. I had repair surgery on May 1. I am doing pretty well. I can about everything I need to except hook my bra. I also have a hard time with waistband buttons, thank God for pull-on pants! And my beloved cuts my meat for me. I am just tired of being limited by it. I really pushed it too much yesterday, and I am paying for it today! I got for PT Friday morning, so I am resting it today.

Thanks again!