What I learned yesterday
Yesterday I spent about 3 hours trying to quilt ONE row of a quilt - end to end patter on my long arm. I actually picked it out about 1/3 of the way across 3 times. Crazy.
I couldn't figure out why it wasn't quilting nicely any more. The first two rows quilted very smoothly, then I changed the bobbin. I tried everything i could think of to get it to work. After the 3rd 'pick out', I finally questioned the bobbin itself.
It was wound correctly. So I pinched it between my thumbnail and pointer finger nails and unwound some thread. That was the key - as the thread unwound from the bobbin, the bobbin wobbled! I did the same thing with another bobbin - no wobble. After carefully examining the bad bobbin again, I realized that the bobbin was slightly bent inward on one side. If I hadn't done the unwinding thing, I would never have seen it!
Inserted another bobbin and the third row quilted correctly! I was so relieved!