Karla..I had no idea until I took a class how important your needle choice actually is to how your machine behaves. I have lots of different kinds of needles now for different activities and I DO change them frequently. If my machine in misbehaving...it is usually the needle...not the thread. You should change out your needle after about 8 hours of quilting. Sometimes when you think it is sharp, you can run it through your fingers and you will notice a tiny spur somewhere on it..that will cause the needle not to pick up the thread properly and cause you tons of frustration.
I order my needles from jhittle...they are pretty inexpensive compared to the headaches not having the right one causes me. :wink: