Why I Use Octi-Hoops

First things first… I am NOT getting paid to say this. The owners, management, ect… of Octi-Hoops did not give me a set to try out for free and endorse their product. I have not used any hoops other than the Octi-Hoops so I don’t know how they compare.

These are the reasons I use Octi-Hoops.
1. FOCUS. I have fibromyalgia and I am in pain all the time. I found that when I would free motion quilt a project, that my focus was on THAT project. My focus was not on paying attention to my body. Octi-hoops “force” you to stop and readjust yourself… often. It IS annoying, because you cannot go as quick as you would without them. The plus far outweighs the negative in this situation. Getting over the annoyance was a challenge, but honestly I have not had nearly as much pain afterwards because I stopped and readjusted my body many times. I also noticed that I took more breaks using the Octi-hoops, because I was noticing my body more.

2. DONE! During the making of this video, I took many breaks. You can tell I was tired, because I had just gotten home from work. I wanted to show that little by little you CAN get projects done. I took many breaks, had dinner and watched a movie with my family in between quilting sessions. The whole half a yard of fabric was quilted within just a few hours. Yes, it would have been faster without the Octi-hoops, but I also would have been in pain and might not have finished the project or I might not have gotten back to quilting so soon.

3. LESS PAIN… described why above.

4. EASY… as described above. Just a little practice and making sure your project is left in the machine with the needle down makes it easy to get back to where you left off.

5. TIME. Getting used to moving at a little bit of a slower pace and paying attention to everything going on is well worth the perceived annoyance. Your time is better spent, because you are taking breaks and not hurting yourself to keep you from getting back to quilting.

Basically I have just kept repeating myself, but I truly believe that using Octi-hoops is what has kept me from the usual aches that I experience when free motion quilting in this video: