I just finished a t-shirt quilt and I used a Pellon 950F ShirTailor, and sewing it was a dream. It gave the t-shirts a nice weight, was easy to handle and cut and no gunking up the needle on my machine.
Have you tried wiping the needle with a used fabric softener sheet? When I fuse something and get the adhesive on my iron, I just rub the warm iron with one of those. It should work on the needle, too.