hiya! i shall try and explain myself so that i am understood; please bear with me! i have a janome 2010, and i can sew all day long and not have a problem. but when i 'attempt' (yes, still learning here) to fmq, it starts great, but when i change the bobbin, or sometimes when the bobbin thread gets low, i can hear a little 'pop' and i have wads and balls of loopies on the underside of the fabric, while the top looks just great. i have thought it might be the bobbin tension, but the tension is great with everything else, either with sewing just thru 2 layers, or when batting is added as well. it seems if i play with the bobbin after a bit then it will be okay on scrap, and i can take off again until the bobbin is empty, then we start this long process all over again. am i just a dork? the machine has less than 100 hours on it and is always lint free with new needles and not a speck of dust anywhere. has anyone else had this problem and if so what did you do to change it?? if i'm a dork its okay to tell me so, its the only way i will learn!! i live pretty remotely and really dont have a network of sewer friends to give me a hand here. thanks much!

May be a silly question - but are you remembering to lower the presser foot after you replace the bobbin?

Good luck.

Cheers, K

What came to my mind is...Are you sure your needle thread is still correctly in place in the tension disks and in the take up lever.

When you thread your needle be sure the presser foot is up so the tension disks are open. Also be sure the needle thread is in the take up lever. If it pops out of the take up lever you will get a birds nest on the underside of your fabric.

And lastly, be sure the presser foot is down before you start FMQ'ing.

I can't help you much, but this is a wonderful place for new quilter/sewer friends, and I'm sure someone will come along to help! Check and recheck the presser foot, tension, threading of the needle, etc.

I don't FMQ nor do I have a Janome, but I remember during a FMQ discussion, someone mentioning that they cannot run their bobbin until it's empty. When the bobbing gets so low they have to change it. Maybe if everything else is OK, that is what you will have to do.

Is your stitch length set to zero? I forgot this all the time!

If the loops are on the underside of the fabric, the problem is with the top threading/tension.

Just start from the beginning and rethread your machine. If that doesn't help, check your bobbin to make sure it is the right one. this happened to me and I had accidently bought extra plastic bobbins and they were for a Singer and not a brother. The results drove me to pulling hair!!