Well, here is the update - I spent about 2 1/2 hours getting the job done, but the time flew and it wasn't all spent on the problem resolution.
I sewed off frame to confirm regular sewing and tension ok.
When we went to put it on the frame to work through the next phase, she was quite reluctant to take off her work in progress.
Finally convinced her she really didn't want to have us work through the problem using her finished quilt as the test fabric. She had already done one pass across the quilt in FMQ and then began to have problems.
So, we removed the quilt, loaded some practice stuff and got through it. The bobbin tension was off, the upper tension needed to be tweaked back and then once these problems were resolved with my thread, we went to her thread, which kept shredding and breaking - turns out her thread(s) - Gutterman brand, were more sensitive to her threading pattern.
I like Gutterman thread and have used spools of it in my sewing time, but not on the frame - we had to make sure we used the last little eye just above the needle, which ensured a better angle for the thread to enter the eye. Once we did that, problem solved!
Then I nicely helped her re-load the partially quilted quilt, that took probably 45 minutes of our time.
Some show and tell of the tops she has ready to quilt and then I was off back home.
I am glad I was able to get this sorted out for her, she is a nice lady. She even invited me to join her guild which is a very small, very new one, only 12 members.
Thank you to each of you for the suggestions made.
GEMRM