Needle breaking
I have a "new to me" Elna that is about 40-years old. I had some trouble with her missing stitches (not catching the bobbin thread) but I think we've worked that out. She's been in storage for a week or so and last night, I dug her out of the cabinet.
I'm new to FMQ, and I bought Elna specifically for FMQ. She has a slow and a fast setting. The slow setting is too slow even for me, so I put her on fast, but I can't put the pedel to the metal yet. So I try to keep her at a nice, steady slow-ish pace. She will go really fast, if you let her!
Anyway, last night, I'd only been working on her for 2-3 minutes and the needle broke! I grumbled and picked the needle out of the quilt and found the pack of needles and put in a new one. Then I picked up where I left off and it broke too!! I left the quilt where it was and picked the needle out and went to bed. At this point, I'm thinking hand-quilting is quicker.
Because I'm not used to her, I still have to use the manual when I put the bobbin in and I know I'm putting the needle in correctly (flat side to the back!). I bought the "right" kind of needles and bobbin just for her. (I can't remember the brand of needle, but it starts with an "S" and isn't "Singer"!)
Is it something "I'm" doing? or is it the machine? I like the machine just fine, but I'm not married to it, and I don't want to buy stock in the "S-something needle factory" to keep playing with it. And I don't want "crappy machine syndrome" to keep me from trying something the way my grandmother's old Singer that wanted to eat my fingers kept me from sewing when I was younger. But I don't know if it's me or Elna.
Advice?!