OK, so I got up this morning & turned the beast on and heard a strange noise when the needle moved into position. Not a nice noise, either. I rolled her over & shook her as I had broken a needle right before this all happened & I didn't remember finding all the needle pieces. Thought maybe it had fallen on floor or in thread catcher.
I also opened her up and sucked about 5 lbs. of fuzzy stuff and lint out of the bottom compartment! So anyway, after shaking & sucking & cleaning and everything else I could think of to do that might help, I put the bottom back on & turned her on. Changed to a regular stitching set-up and stitched away. She purred like a kitten and not a bit of trouble with the top thread bunching up on the bottom. No Dr. this week! So I finished the rest of the center 16 blocks. Have taken pictures & will post later.
Next step is to assemble the center unit as I am doing that reversible quilt method of QAYG. I don't like how the blocks look on the back, so have covered each block with another black square & will stitch it in with the little sashings.
Now I will need to figure out what I am going to do for the center unit border! Will watch Patches for a little while later. It's too early to stay & watch now! :-)