Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Killing yourself quilting


Earlier this week Maria Shell had a post on her blog called "Killing myself with deadlines" in which she discussed the toll on the body from quilting many hours to get ready for a show.  I can sympathize, remembering vividly the aches in the back and shoulders, and one that surprised me -- the disabled knee from the sewing machine pedal once when I had to sew the last 15% of the quilt with the left foot.  (Amazing how difficult that is -- like writing with your wrong hand.)

But yesterday I almost killed myself not with repetitive stress injuries but a more direct form of suicide.  I had to assemble a bunch of quilts to take to a guild lecture, and located one roll on a bed in the guest room, way over in the corner.  I reached over awkwardly to grab it and discovered that it was a lot heavier than I was anticipating.  I got off balance and started going over backwards.

In that endless moment when you realize you're doomed but the axe hasn't fallen yet, I looked around and tried to find something I could hang on to.  Grabbed onto a chest of drawers, which turned out to be a really bad decision.  Instead of the chest providing me with support, it seized the opportunity to fall down too.  Since it was full of fabric, it had lots of weight behind it to knock me down and keep me pinned there.

Fortunately my husband was at home and heard the crash, then my call for help.  He got the chest off me and set it upright, then spent ten minutes picking up pieces of broken glass from my shirt and hair while I lay in place, because there had been a set of my grandmother's lead-crystal glasses decoratively arranged on top of the chest.  Finally I managed to get up, and spent most of an hour dealing with broken glass in the rest of the room.

It could have been worse, of course, had my head or neck hit the wooden chair behind me instead of just going down onto the floor, or had the heavy chest caught my leg in a slightly worse position.  And if my husband had been out, I might have had to lie there until he got back.

When I tally the ways quilting has tried to kill me, this probably is number three on the hit parade.  One and two were the times I sliced the edge of my thumb with the rotary cutter and ran a sewing machine needle into my finger.  More blood with number one, but considerable pain from both.  I got off easy this time.  

What's the worst you've ever done to yourself in the name of quilting??

22 comments:

  1. oh dear. What we do so we 1) don't bother our men 2) avoid the questions that come with asking 3) retain some small amount of independence. Choose one or all of the above.
    Glad you survived.
    Sandy

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    1. I was really happy to bother my man this time! Independence is great until you're trapped under a large piece of furniture.

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  2. Wow, that was scary. I am so glad your husband was there to help.

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  3. Wow, that sounds scary and upsetting. Hope your worst residual injury is to your dignity. So sorry about your grandmother's glasses. :(

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  4. Oh Kathy, I'm glad it wasn't worse and that you are okay. May your wounds heal quickly. Your guild talk will now have extra spice.

    My issues have always related to my hands, elbows and shoulders. After unknowingly sustaining a torn ligament in my thumb (from a non sewing event), I continued to sew my Quilt National piece at intense pace and gave myself tennis elbow. I did 3 months of daily exercises to get over it. Now I have to really listen to my elbow when it says "I need a break" and let deadlines go or simply plan for more time in the first place.

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  5. Kathy- I have to say that I found your visual description of your fall very funny. I could see it so clearly, but then you mentioned the glass-Ouch! I'm glad your husband was there and I hope you are on the mend. Who knew quilting could be so dangerous!

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  6. Oh, ouch!
    On the way back from giving a quilt talk on Saturday, while attempting to put my big trunk onto the Underground train, I fell over and broke a rib..
    Definitely a quilting injury, and yes, ouch!

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  7. I'm glad you survived the fall with no serious injuries.

    My worst was when I sewed over my finger and the needle broke off leaving thread and part of the needle buried in my finger bone. It required s bit of surgery in urgent care to remove the needle.

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  8. Yikes! That sounds painful, glad you are not seriously injured. I also sewed into my finger, but nowhere near as drastic as Linda. Owww! I was able to stop and back the machine up to pull the needle out. It was freaky to see but luckily not serious.

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  9. That's a bad accident, with a very lucky outcome. I'm glad you are OK, and that you were not alone. Amazing how quickly things can happen.

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  10. Gosh I hope you are ok. Maybe there is a quilt off of the black and blue marks.
    My worst accident happened only 5 minutes into my very first Nancy Crow class when I immediately sliced off the side of one finger sending me to the emergency room. I was not so upset with the accident but i was terrified that I would miss my deadline!

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    1. I think I was there when you did that!!

      I don't even have black and blue -- the roll of quilts apparently got between me and the chest of drawers and cushioned the blow. I have a scab the size of a raisin on my leg and that's it!!

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    2. Oh, we all know the temptation of reaching too far...sorry the chest attacked instead of helping. You'll likely find some sore spots later. Working in a friend's q. shop, I snipped a slice off the side of my index finger with Gingher shears. They were so sharp I didn't feel anything--was just surprised to see a little "pink button" hit the mat. On turning it over I saw it was bloody, then my finger really began to flow. I grabbed and hid it with paper towels because the customer was someone who would have fainted! So I had to be brave!

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  11. Might be a morbid thought, but I wish someone had taken photos.

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  12. I actually had that thought myself, as my husband was coming to my rescue, but my leg really hurt and I wanted to get unpinned fast. besides, he probably wouldn't have been able to find my camera.

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  13. My, that was awful. As I have an increasing disability I have become very conscious of how easy it is to do this sort of thing. I now wear an alarm on my wrist but it is very scary when you fall and know there is no-one to help you up. (My condition means once down, I cannot get up unaided.) My worst quilting 'injury' was developing shingles when trying to finish a piece for the Festival of Quilts. Fortunately it was only a mild attack but my GP said that she had loads of teenagers who got shingles when taking big exams as it is stress related. So watch out when working to tight schedules!

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  14. Glad you're okay; could have been awful! I can't say I've almost killed myself quoting; my problem is more that I've rushed my way to mishap.

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  15. When I initially made an art quilt depicting a fish in a river (about to swallow a fishhook), I didn’t manage to get it photographed before an exhibit at a small venue. A year or so later, while preparing paperwork for another quilt show, I hurried out to the studio to take a quick photo. I pinned it to the design wall and swept my hand over the quilt top to smooth it out......YUP, you guessed it...it HOOKED ME!!!... and I was stuck to the quilt hanging on the wall....ALONE. After the initial shock wore off, I tried to remove the hook....nope! Finally, I got the quilt off the wall, went into the house and located the wire cutters, and found my husband watching TV in the bedroom…."Don't let any blood get on the quilt!" He managed to snip the hook and free me from the quilt.

    My husband thought he could remove the hook......nope! At 10:30pm on a Sunday night in February (in northern Michigan with deep snow on the ground) my disgruntal husband was driving me to the ER (I interrupted the movie he was watching). I had to repeat this story about three times (the receptionist didn't even know what a quilt WAS, let alone an ART quilt). "HOW DID YOU GET A FISH HOOK IN YOUR FINGER??? YOUR QUILT CAUGHT YOU????” Needless to say, it was the highlight of the evening. Every time someone "new" came into the exam room, it was obvious that word had gotten around about how a quilt can catch a person with a fishhook. LOL

    The young ER doctor hadn't removed a fish hook for a few months (if ever?!) and at first wanted to pull it through to the other side of the finger.....nope! Obviously, he deadened my finger.... He ended up having to back it out. Bottom line, it healed up just fine. No blood on the quilt.....and I replaced the metal hook with embroidery floss a few days later.

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    1. What?? an ER in northern Michigan and the doc was not an expert in removing fishhooks??? as a former part-time resident of northern Michigan I find that hard to believe. (maybe he did his residency in Detroit)

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  16. Ouch, i am still reeling from the fish hook from heck just above me ! Once upon a long time ago i was hanging a quilt calendar on a small nail and thought i would punch the nail through the hole on top and then tap tap into the wall. a small sift of angle led the nail to slant in such a way that i was now attached to the wall by my pointer finger. in nshock i removed hand from wall with bnail through the back of nail bed and asked myfrinds husband to get the plyers to pull out the nail. after he fainted to the floor i got my plyers and pulled the dnail out my self. Some men can stand the sight of blood !
    years lather when i had a manicure the girl asked if i had damaged my nail in the past? It still is odd looking but works great. i think it was same nail that was pierced with my feather weight piercing fabric decades later. she still works but makes me wince just thinking about how quickly we can get into trouble...be here now.
    I am glad you are okay and that you had a quick rescue.

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  17. I am friends with Maria Shell here in Alaska and we have complained about our aches and pains from this work several times. I am a regular at my chiropractor’s office. One of the worst industrial accidents I ever experienced, however, happened to a boss when I was 19 and in the clothing industry: she swallowed a pin. I wrote about this last year so I won’t go into the details here (www.amymeissner.com/blog/swallowing-the-needle), but it was spectacular and life shaping. This is the same boss, who late one night, sewed her finger with an industrial machine and was pinned there for several hours unable to reach the phone. She finally freed herself with the manual balance wheel by working the needle in and out of the bone until it broke free. What a mess. Oh, and last week I nearly burned my house down when my old iron blew up and sent a firey arc across my ironing board. Women’s work. Good times.
    Amy

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  18. WOW!!! So thankful you are okay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I put door stop wedges on heavy pieces of furniture that sit a tad forward. The weight of one drawer with fabric in it could make that balance lean forward. Hugs~

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