I discovered that someone else had left the feed dogs up. She owns Mary's Quilt Shop in Snohomish, so who knows who has been messing with it. But yes, there were metal shavings. I was trying to go faster because the two women who taught us how to use it said to speed it up once you get going, so maybe the speed, the needle size, and the feed dogs being up were all the problems. I am going to try changing the tension next time I get to work on it...