Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I discovered that my walking foot was a little off so that probably caused the puckering on just the top. I had missed a section that I discovered after trimming up and had to put the walking foot back and on and what a difference. I will look at different needles, too. I looked at my Craftsy freebie classes and lo and behold there is one for machine quilting. So I will spend the time to watch that too. I did purchase gloves today so next time I am more ready and hopefully it will go much better.