Glad you have your machine running again!
One of my first quilting books had a section at the end of each project suggesting you hug your machine, put in a new needle, and give it a good cleaning. It was a great introduction to how to treat our partner in making our creations :)
You also mention difficulty getting started on each seam ... since I started using 'leaders' I have never had a seam get sucked into the feed dogs ... I use a little scrap and start and end my seams - besides doing a better job keeping those seams straight at the start and end, you've already got the threads neatly snipped.