Finally Finished: The Teal Quilt

After all the problems, the Teal Quilt is finally finished. Whoo-hoo! 

This was more of a challenge than I anticipated. 

First, it's a remake of the Black and Tan quilt I made last year, but making it monochromatic meant finding just the right fabric hue, value, and intensity. Shopping ensued. The placement of darks and mediums is crucial for the dark diagonal grid framework to emerge. Squint at the photo and you'll see it more clearly. 

Second, and more frustrating, the quilting was a nightmare, as I've written about in several recent posts. Thanks to much troubleshooting by the ladies on PCQ's Long Arm Committee, the issues were resolved and I was able to quilt it. 

I'm keeping this quilt for me. PCQ is having a quilt show in March, and I'm entering it. It feels good to have this one done and I'm pleased with how it turned out. 

Link ups: Alycia Quilts 1/16, My Quilt Infatuation 1/22

X and Plus Blocks

Back when I lived in St. Louis and was a member of the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild, I was part of a bee, and one of the members had us make X and Plus blocks one month. It's a fun block to make, and a popular one. 

I've long thought about making an X and Plus quilt. But most of the images I've seen are a chaotic splash of colors. Even those that are symmetrical and laid out with care are usually blindingly bright or have nowhere to rest the eye. Then I saw this monochromatic version from Zen Chick - Brigitte Heitland. Much easier on the eyes than most versions! Click on the link and check it out. 

I have an overabundance of greens in my stash: an overflowing basket of green-greens, a pretty full basket of yellow-greens, and a very full basket of teals and blue-greens. I could make a similar version. 

Over the Christmas holidays I cut a few pieces and started making blocks. I'm using white on white or very subtle white ground prints for the triangles, all the same fabric within one block. Most of the green prints will be used in two blocks, but a few of the fabrics were scraps and will only be used once. 

I'll cut a few more pieces and make a few more blocks, and see where this is going. Thank you, Brigitte, for the inspiration! 

Linking up with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

The Teal Quilt is Quilted

I cannot speak highly enough of the dedication and thoroughness and support of PCQ's long arm committee. They took seriously my issues with quilting the teal quilt. They scheduled a thread testing session and work day for themselves and invited me to bring my teal thread for them to test. 

They tweaked everything they possible could. They got the machine to quilt perfectly and I was able to start quilting my quilt. No more eyelashes on the back! 

Looking good! 

Two thirds of the way quilted, and I ran out of bobbin. After inserting the new bobbin, the machine made a funny sound and acted up again. Major eyelashes. The girls on the committee tweaked some more, did a lot of testing, and after four hours that afternoon, called it a day with plans to reconvene the next morning. I took the quilt off the frame, took it home and removed the bad quilting. 

Next morning the girls on the committee tweaked everything some more. They cleaned and adjusted everything again and again. They tried my teal thread and they tried white thread, same type. They tried different bobbins. They even tried a different bobbin case. Finally they were satisfied with the quilting and I was able to finish the last two passes. There were a couple of thread breaks and a couple of small birds nests on the underside, but those are small and near enough to the edge that I can unpick the bad parts and restitch on my domestic machine. 

I'm grateful to the members of the committee for their dedication to solving the problem and helping me get my project quilted. I hope no one else has to deal with such problems next time they're quilting. 

I have another reserved time slot on the 8th - this week! - and I'll be quilting my grandson's quilt with minky backing. Wish me luck! 

2025 Annual Goals Recap

With regard to meeting all my quilting goals, 2025 was somewhat hit or miss. Mostly hit, so I'm not beating myself up over a couple of misses. All in all, it was a very successful year. Let's look how I did with each goal: 

1. Work with PCQ's Community Service committee as needed.
    Q1: Developed a new Irish Chain Variation pattern per their request and made two test samples. 
    Q2: Enlarged Irish Chain pattern per their request and made another test sample. 
    Q3: Stepped back from formally working with the Community Service Committee for the rest of the year. 

Irish Chain Top

2. Continue making donation quilts for PCQ's charities. 
    Q1: 2 versions of 42" Irish Chain for pattern test. Also created original pattern for PCQ. 
    Q2: Urban Jungle stacked Slabs, April. Top only, 50" x 66" larger version of PCQ's Irish Chain plus pattern revisions, May. 2 versions of Scrappy Serendipity, Dancing Plus baby quilt (teaching sample), June. 
    Q3: Story Stacked Slabs quilted by Cherie, and Black-White-Bright Lozenges (a' la Tula Pink) quilted by Cherie, August. Wanda's Squares UFO baby quilt, August. Pink Scrappy Serendipity, September. Pinwheel Baby Quilt, September.
    Q4: Red and Black Churn Dash, October. Almost Postage Stamp, November. The Scrappy Pinterest Project quilt, December. 

    In total, including Kevin's two tops that I quilted, I donated 13 finished quilts and two tops in 2025. 

Scrappy Serendipity

3. Teach color class to PCQ members. 
    Taught Group 4, six lessons, January-March 2025
    Also taught Dancing Plus class

4. Completely finish at least one UFO.
    Finished baby quilt of squares gifted by Wanda years ago. Such a small finish and it was already kitted up it should hardly count! 

Wanda's Squares baby quilt

5. Continue using PCQ's long arm to improve skills. Also practice ruler work on my Bernina. 
    Q1: Long arm not available. Completed certification on PCQ's new Innova in March.
    Q2: Quilted Urban Jungle Stacked Slabs in April. Quilted two Scrappy Serendipity quilts in May. 
    Q3: Quilted Cherry Jubilee, Pink Scrappy Serendipity and Red and Black Churn Dash. Helped with Edna's quilt.
    Q4: Quilted Almost Postage Stamp and the Scrappy Pinterest quilt. Attempted to quilt the teal quilt but had major problems. 
    Did not practice ruler work on my Bernina. 

Cherry Jubilee

6. Go on retreat at Ritter Ranch in April and July. 
    April: Completed the navy & pink LCT variation top and the Kaffe Flying Geese top, both gifted to friends. Finished piecing all the blocks for the Almost Postage Stamp quilt. 
    July: Worked on a confidential collaborative project with Cherie; got more done than anticipated, almost to the corners. 

LCT Variation top, given to Edna

7. Plan/create/develop a new long term complicated project to work on over time. 
    Planned Crossroads Wheel, but it took over and became a quicker project than anticipated. 

Crossroads Wheel blocks

8. End the year with more stash used than acquired - net stash reduction. 
    Net stash reduction of 52-1/8 yards for the year. 

9. Finish Kaffe Gradient project.
    No, not touched. 

10. Blog if topics arise but no pressure to post frequently; post monthly recap for my own reference. 
    Q1: 16 posts.
    Q2: 11 posts
    Q3: 15 posts
    Q4: 18 posts

For 2026, my goals will remain the same except for #1 and #3 which are no longer applicable. 

December Stash Report and Goals Update

 Due to unforeseen difficulties, I didn't meet all my goals for December, but I have plans for working around the problems. I did finish my one-year-in-making Scrappy Pinterest Project. With this, and my Positively Scrappy top, my stash usage was good. 

The Scrappy Pinterest Project

December Stash Report: 

IN this month: 1-3/4 yards (1-3/4 yards from 35th Ave.)
IN YTD: 81-1/2 yards

OUT this month: 12-1/4 yards (Est. 5 yards of my fabric (includes leftovers given away) for Scrappy Pinterest top and binding. 7-1/4 yards for Positively Scrappy, includes binding)
OUT YTD:133-5/8 yards

YTD NET CHANGE: 52-1/8 yards OUT

Yardage counted out represents only my own fabrics. I don't count any of PCQ's fabrics that I use in my stash reports. But since I have access to them for PCQ charity quilts and I use them, my actual yardage used is much higher. 

Positively Scrappy top

Goals Update: 

December Recap: 

1. Piece grandson's b-day quilt top. Done. 

2. Shop for fleece backing and lightweight batting for it. Shopped two Hobby Lobby stores; did not find fleece in a suitable color but both stores stock minky so I'll probably use that. 

3. Shop for sashing and cornerstone fabric for Crossroads Wheel. Shopped locally, searched online, ordered swatches from Spoonflower. Still looking.

4. Shop for teal thread of the approved brand and size to quilt the teal quilt. Yes, I bought thread in the approved type but subsequently had problems using it. 

5. Quilt, bind, and finish the teal quilt. No, had a major problem with the quilting. Two passes had to be ripped out. 

6. Bind and finish the scrappy Pinterest-inspired quilt. Done and donated. 

January Goals: 

1. Get Minky and quilt grandson's video game quilt. Bind and finish. Must be shipped by January 31. 

2. Talk to Spoonflower about printing sashing fabric for my Crossroads Wheel project. 

3. Pull fabrics and cut pieces for an X and Plus quilt. 

4, Start planning a long-term piecing project to work on at social sewing. 

5. Go through my UFOs and figure out a plan for them. 

The biggest priority is getting my Grandson's birthday quilt quilted, finished and sent out. His b-day is Feb. 7 so the quilt has to be at his dad's in Missouri by the 6th. I've never quilted with minky backing before. I have a time slot on the long arm on January 8. My last attempt at quilting was a disaster, so wish me luck with this! 

More about Quilting the Teal Quilt

 Since my last post (scroll down) about the problems quilting my teal quilt, there have been some developments. I have unpicked all the bad quilting so the top, back, and batting are ready to start over.

Regarding quilting my quilt, my Pennsylvania friend Cherie has offered to quilt it for me on her long arm. Also, my local friend Carla has offered to let me quilt it on her long arm in her home. I'll talk to Carla in January, and Cherie will be visiting me here in AZ in February, so I'm sure one of these options will work out.

PCQ's Long Arm Committee , aware of my difficulties and that I partially blame the thread, is planning to do some thread testing and they've asked me to bring the problem teal thread and participate in their tests. This is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. I'm anxious to see what and how they test and learn the results. 

Also because of my difficulties, they have refined the materials and procedures for troubleshooting. They have added laminated pages to the long arm user guide with detailed instructions for all the things that should be checked to see what's causing the problem. They've also instituted a test swatch, a FQ size sandwich of fabric and batting, for testing the stitch quality before starting to quilt. 

I'm confident my quilt will get quilted sooner or later, and I'm gratified that the Committee took my issues seriously and is doing something to help prevent future occurrences. 

Teal Quilt Update

Remember my teal quilt? The top has been pieced for a while, and since I'm keeping this one, I had to get backing, batting, and thread for it. So it was on hold for a while for other priorities, until its turn on the long arm came up. Here it is before I fixed the upside-down bottom border. It's fixed now. 

Finally everything came together: top, backing, batting, thread, and long arm time slot. I got everything loaded and stitched the first pass of freehand meandering. Advanced the quilt and stitched another pass. 

Then I checked out the back where I could see it around the roller. Oh, no. Disaster. 

Eyelashes everywhere. 

Some background: 

 - This machine was new in March 2025 and was professionally installed. 

 - It's shared by 78+ PebbleCreek Quilters who have been trained and certified by our Long Arm Committee to use it. 

 - Only the approved thread can be used, in order to not have to adjust the tension. 

 - We used to use Superior 50 wt. So Fine thread but due to numerous thread breaks, the Committee recently switched to 40 wt. Omni.

 - Due to the change in thread type, the Committee has only stocked basic colors. If they don't have the color you need, you have to buy it yourself. I bought a 6000 yard cone of the approved 40 wt. Omni in a teal color. 

 - Very strict rule for all users using the long arm: NEVER TOUCH THE TENSION.

There is an instruction book for all long arm users to refer to, which includes trouble shooting. 

 - I made sure the machine was loaded correctly. It was. 

 - I checked that the machine was threaded correctly. It was. 

 - I checked the bobbin tension and found it to be good. 

 - Made sure the machine, including the bobbin case area, was free of lint. In addition to being a heavier weight, the Omni thread is much hairier and fuzzier than So Fine. I brushed it out before starting and after each pass. 

When these steps fail, the procedure is to send a group text to the 5 members of the Long Arm Committee. Whoever can respond will text Got It to all and then reply to the user. 

Okay, I was already frustrated, and I'm old, I'm not much of a phone person. I've never started a group text before. I could have cried. It took me a while to figure out that I need to put all the names and numbers into my contacts first, then start the text. Finally I was able to send a photo and a request for help to the Committee. 

One of them got right back to me and half an hour later she arrived at the Fiber Arts Room to help. Together we spent about an hour trouble shooting. She found that the tension, although it looked like the correct setting, was actually one whole revolution too tight. That only partially fixed the problem. We fiddled and tested, fiddled and tested, again and again and again, for about an hour and could not get a satisfactory result. Still getting eyelashes on the back, but not quite as bad. 

Finally we tried another cone of thread, white. Perfect stitching. We tried black and the stitching was acceptable, not perfect but much better than the teal thread. Since the machine was stitching beautifully with white thread, there was nothing more we could do, but I couldn't use the teal thread to quilt my quilt. 

So here's where I'm at today: 

 - I have a top I spent 9 months designing and piecing, that I love. 

 - I have the perfect backing for it, 

 - I bought batting. 

 - I bought expensive thread that now I can't use.

 - I have to rip out two passes of very bad quilting plus numerous test patches in the margins. I don't have and cannot get any more of this backing fabric, so I have to rip out every stitch. 

 - I must use only Omni thread on the club's machine; Omni thread in my color didn't work, so now I don't know how I'll get this quilt quilted. It's too big for me to quilt on my domestic machine. 

 - I don't want to pay to send it out for quilting because this quilt is just a vanity project for me. It doesn't have a purpose and doesn't coordinate with any rooms in my house, so it will probably just sit in a closet. 

I'm beyond frustrated. 

PCQ has a Long Arm Users group that meets once a month under the direction of the Committee. Tomorrow is the December meeting. I plan to take this project and the teal thread to the meeting. Maybe one of the other Committee members will have a suggestion. If nothing else, I can start ripping out the bad quilting. 

Sigh. 

Link Ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts 12/15;  Alycia Quilts 12/19