Not the Faces!

If you've read my blog for very long, you'll know I use quite a bit of novelty prints. A lot of the people in my life like themed quilts, which often leads to the use of novelty prints. Most of the time when I'm quilting, I can happily quilt through whatever is on the fabric and only think about the quilting design, but when there are faces...well, let's just say I have a really hard time quilting through faces. I can quilt across bodies or trucks or fruits and vegetables without a problem, but a face??? I've done it, but it bothered me the whole time, and if I see it later on, it still bothers me. 

The last wedding quilt of 2021 was superhero themed, so lots of faces! I had originally planned to do walking foot quilting on it, since I backed it with minky and that causes too much drag for my arm to handle it well. When it came right down to it, I knew any walking foot design I had considered was going to have me quilting through faces, and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I ended up doing an easy meander on it, but it was still a chore moving it around.

I thought I was home free, I made it through the quilting without any serious pain. When I started sewing on the binding my arm started hurting. Surely it will be fine, I'm almost done, right? I finished the quilt, and my niece should get it today. I mailed it out on Monday. I'm happy with how it came out, and I think she and her husband will enjoy it.

If I had been smart, I would have taken a couple days off after that, but I still have two more deadline quilts for 2021, and the year is almost over. I usually start my sewing day with an hour of FMQ, so I grabbed the next basted quilt, which is not a deadline quilt, but neither of those are ready to to quilt, so I just grabbed the next in the pile. It's a big quilt, but normal quilting fabric for the backing, so I wasn't worried about it. I quilted for an hour, and my arm was a bit sore, but not too bad. I took a long break, then spent some time piecing on a different machine. Again, sore arm, but nothing drastic. I quit sewing earlier than usual that day, but of course, that evening I was doing some prep work for the next quilt, and I did a bunch of ironing...That hurt quite a bit. 

Next day I decided to try doing my hour of FMQ, which I shouldn't have done. I got my hour in, but now not only was my upper arm near my bicep hurting like usual, but my shoulder, elbow and wrist are also hurting. I'm reading a really good book right now (if you like time travel books try The Celtic Brooch Series by Katherine Lowry Logan), and I usually only read in bed, but to make myself take a long break, I grabbed my kindle and read during the day! By late afternoon, my arm was feeling a bit better, so I decided to just see about piecing some Star Wars blocks for one of the deadline quilts. I made it through six blocks, that's it. Once that RSI flares up, it gets aggravated very easily. 

Funny how things work out though. I was supposed to be going to spend a week at DD#2's house November 7-14. She contacted me, and now things got moved up and she needs me next week instead, could I make that work? I told her that was perfect, because if I'm not home I won't be sewing and my arm can use the break! 

Now I'll be leaving in a couple days, so I'll be making sure DH has what he'll need while I'm gone. I won't be doing any more FMQ until after my trip, but I am hoping to get a couple smaller jobs done. This morning I finished piecing the blocks for the Star Wars quilt.

I haven't pressed this block yet, but it gives you an idea of where I'm going with that quilt. I really did opt for simple blocks because of the time constraints. 

I have some really easy cutting that I need to get done, and it's not going through multiple layers of fabric, so I might actually be able to do that. If I don't finish that's OK.

This is what I've got done so far on my washer/dryer runner. It needs a border to bring it up to size, and I'd like to get the border on tomorrow, along with the border on the deadline baby quilt. If I only get the two borders on I'll consider that a huge win! The Star Wars quilt can wait, though I'd like to get the blocks pressed. 

I've been mulling over why my RSI got so bad this time, and I think it's because I haven't been taking weekends off lately. DH has weekends off work, but he has had a ton of stuff going on with his side business. Since he's been busy, I've just kept myself busy, to my own detriment. My arm needs those days off, and I have to be better about making myself take them. 

All-in-all, I'm happy with my progress, and I knew I was pushing it too hard, so having my arm act up isn't that much of a surprise. It's a bummer, yes, but a surprise, not really. The change in my daughters schedule really works to my advantage, so next week my arm gets a break, while I'm busy with a couple of grandkids! I won't be blogging next week, because I don't feel like bringing my laptop or iPad with me, and I don't enjoy blogging from my phone. Enjoy the next couple of weeks without me, and if you need a break, try to take one!