Quilting Frustration

I got my blue One Block Wonder on the frame a couple of weeks ago.  I managed to quilt a couple of rows and then things went to heck in a handbasket!  The top thread started shredding and breaking every 12 inches or so.

Since then, I have rethreaded that sewing machine until I can do it blindfolded.  I've cleaned and recleaned it, oiled it, taken it apart and put it back together.  I've tried a myriad of tension settings until I found one that worked.  I changed out the needle 4 times!  Thinking I got a bad spool of thread, I ordered a new one only to find out that the new spool shredded as badly as the original!  Every time I tried something and it didn't work, I'd have to walk away for awhile, do some more research, and then try something else.  This kind of frustration I do NOT handle well.

What was really confusing was that the sewing machine would work perfectly when I took it off the frame and tested it on a table (and I tried that several times).  It just didn't make sense!  And then last night, I thought of something else.  It dawned on me that after trying 4 Janome-brand needles without success, I wondered another brand would work.  Somewhere on the internet, I'd read that the Janome could also use Schmetz needles.  In my Bernina attachments, I found I had several packages of Schmetz QUILTING needles, size 100/14.

I put one on the Janome this morning and the darn thing worked! Yippee!  I finished quilting that miserable quilt this afternoon.  All this "trial and tribulation" was either a test or makes me think if OBW's are not for me!

But now I can look forward to taking the Japanese Jigzaw quilt class next weekend.