Pure Frustration!!
 

Yesterday was one of those days you'd rather just forget about. 1st off I'm working on my 3rd quilt on the frame and hoping to finish by the end of this month but it doesn't look like I'll make my goal. I'm now working on the Abstraction lap quilt and I knew what I wanted to do on the large corners and I got the top 2 done but it took quite a while to do them as I had to advance to get the last part of the patterns stitched. I'm using the words "Love, Hope, Peace and Joy" on a slant as the area is basically a triangle and it's over 26 inches long at the bottom and my machine will only do 22 inches at a time. I worked putting the words together evenly spaced and level before turning them 45 degrees to fit the area. And of course each word was created by whomever so you couldn't connect the words so they would continue stitching. It was a lot of stop, tie off, go to the next word, tie off, stitch, stop, tie off and so on but I got it done and I'm happy with how they turned out.

Then came the body of the quilt and I made a layout beforehand but realized it wouldn't work as planned so went to Plan B and those patterns didn't work for me either so I started searching thru my patterns on the IQ tablet for a pantagraph that would look good with the words and what I ended up using for the small border. That also had to be changed from what I thought I was going to use. Finally found the pantagraph, set it up blocking sections around the body of the quilt so that I could stitch them out with the silver thread and the body of the quilt in a pale blue thread.

Realized I'd made the blocks for those special sections incorrectly after I'd cut out the body of the pantagraph so had to start over but here's the frustration, I couldn't remember where I found that pantagraph so had to search all over again. I spent 5 hours searching and placing the patterns just so only to delete them and start over. I finally found what I thought was the pattern and I wrote it down this time.

I was able to stitch out 2 rows of the pantgraph but I was having issues with the thread snapping on me so I changed the needle as I'd quilted 2 lap quilts with that needle. Well, that didn't seem to help so once I finally got done with the 2nd row, I placed the spools of thread along with the filled bobbins in the freezer over night as I've read that will put moisture into the thread. This is Aurifil thread so I didn't expect to have issues with it plus it's been kept in the closed drawer too. So hopefully today will be a better day for quilting.

On a good note, for those with an Innova frame, I read on the Innova Facebook page about changing out the gas lifters on the ends of the belly bar ordering from Amazon or an auto store. I don't have access with Amazon so I went to my local Napa Auto store and ordered a set of the gas lifters, paid much less than what the Innova website was charging. I'd taken my original gas lifter with me with all the dimensions stated on the Facebook page and they looked identical. I popped one on yesterday and it works like a charge. I was able to save myself over $40 by ordering thru the auto store so YEAH for me.

good for you! for persisting rather than giving up, and for recognizing inadvertently, there is no free shipping on Amazon... it's all in the pricing :)

I'm glad you've gotten things sorted out. As as side note, I was trying to quilt a quilt for my husband using Aurifil thread a few years ago. I kept having problems with the thread breaking and was so frustrated. I happened to mention it to a quilting friend at the guild meeting. She told me she had had that problem and had changed to a different spool of the same thread and had no problems after that. I went the next day and bought a new spool of Aurifil and had no problems. I finished quilting the quilt in a couple hours. Sometimes you just get a bad one.

Good for you for going to a auto parts store and ordering. You save yourself some money and supported a local business. Win-win!

I think we all have had days when it's best to just walk away for a couple of minutes or hours (or untill our cuss words run out) and then try again with a much cooler head. My husband says "common sense prevails". Sometimes he's right....

Cashs_mom, I have a second spool so I'll change out and see if that helps. I tried stitching for 2 minutes and stopping for a minute, checking the thread and then continuing for another 2 minutes and it seemed to help a little but at the end it snapped anyway. Even when I was just basting. Thought maybe I had the quilt too tight as that causes thread to snap also but I'll try your idea on Saturday as tomorrow is shopping day with my sister so a day off from quilting altogether.

I tried a cotton cone thread on my longarm when I first got it years ago. The thread broke right away.. It was a thread I used on my home sewing machine for piecing. I figured it wasn't strong enough for long arm sewing and switched to another type thread specifically for long arms. Never tried that again.

Pat1969, I rarely have issues with any thread on my Innova machine but this one has given me fits from the get go. When I took a break for almost 2 years and the got back to quilting, then thread that had been sitting on the machine all that time kept snapping on me so I put it into the freezer that night and the next day everything was right as rein so thought it would work this time. I'm changing the spool to the other one plus I checked my other brand of thread for a similar shade of blue in case the 2nd spool doesn't work either. Hopefully, if I have to change brands, it won't be too noticeable to the receiver.

I didn't try to remedy the problem with the cotton thread. I just assumed that it would not work. So switched to Sew Fine from Superior Thread. I should have tried using it or other cotton cones I had. But was new to long arming and just gave up on it.
Sounds like cotton threads do work . I was using an Innova also.

Working on a quilt right now that may end up in the trash. First of all the cutting sizes of the blocks were wrong and they didn't match up, so I had to take all of them apart and cut one of the blocks down to fit the other. This morning I'm trying to quilt it and my Missouri Star gray thread keeps breaking ( over 10 times in the first two rows), fixed all the breakage area's, changed needles, and now went to Gutterman thread in a color as close to the Mo Star thread as I can get, and now the quilting foot attachment arm that rests on the needle clamp has fallen out of the attachment twice! This is a brand new quilting foot...it's two days old! I'm about to cry and have run out of *&^$#@% words to say. It's not my day to quilt..

LGJARN52, I can relate to a day like that but I can also say the quilt I was having so much trouble with is now completely done and ready to be gifted out once I get his parents' quilt done which I haven't even started and it's a queen size quilt.

The machine you are using, it is a quilting machine or a regular sewing machine? As for the thread, I had this breakage issue before and read about putting the thread into the freezer over night as that will put moisture back into it. Of course that didn't work on my Aurifil thread and I gave it away for someone else to try it on their machine as not all threads work on every machine. My Innova hated the sample thread that came with it so I put that thread over to piece with Most of my threads are at least 10 years old, hanging on the wall but I now have curtains over them to keep them from getting dusty at least. My machine room does get quite dry in the winter time too so that doesn't help the thread.

Sure hope you figure out your issues and if nothing else. Just walk away from the project for maybe a day and then come back as things might start to work again for you.

The other day I lost my stylus pen to my robotic tablet so had to come up with something to use to finish the quilt. Found I have a smaller stylus that came with my embroidery machine so used it. When I went to clean the machine, wheels and rails, then I found my original stylus laying on the backside of the frame. I was just about ready to order a new one but I knew if I did, I'd eventually find my stylus and so I did but without ordering a new one. Good luck with your quilt.