Hi, I am new to the quilting forum and I'm hoping other quilters can help me or poor Mr. Bailey will keep getting phone calls. Does anyone have any suggestions for a chronic birdnest problem? I'm sure it's me, but I never had this problem on a rented longarm. Any suggestions?

Every time I get a nest it's because I didn't put the foot down.
Have never forgotten on my regular machine but with the Bailey..... :oops:

Welcome to the board from Southern California!!!
Sorry I can't help you, I don't own a mid or a long arm machine. Just wanted to welcome you on board!

The frame quilters I know swear by Bobbin Genies to prevent birdnests. Also going to fast when switching directions will cause birdnests.

I don't have a Bailey but when I get birds nests it's from a poorly wound bobbin or not pulling up and holding onto the bobbin & top threads when starting off. I was taught to pull the bobbin thread to the top then wind it and the top thread around a pin a couple times and put it in the quilt to hold & mark it to be knotted and pulled into the sandwich later. Not putting the presser foot down will also cause birds nests but my machine has a safety feature that won't allow it to sew if the foot is not down so I've never had that problem. I'm sure I would if not for my machine being smarter than I am--LOL!

Thanks for the tips. Hello to all. I'm going to get a bobbin genie as I felt it was part of the problem and I'll try the winding around a pin trick too and watch that presser foot. This is a great forum, I'm not on the computer much but I'll have to bookmark this site!

Re-load the bobbin, and clean the area. Those bobbin genie things work great too! :)