I am asking the machine to do something it really wasn't designed to do so I'm not complaining. I didn't notice which direction I was moving to cause the thread to move out of the tension slot or if it's even related. Just noting a quirk in the performance. Overall I'm very pleased with it and I can see why so many quilters like the model 15s for quilting. Personally I think my clone might have a slight edge just because I'm lazy and don't have to reach under the machine to drop the feed dogs.
More progress. I've been tucking in loose thread tails today. The border is more than 1/2 way done but I'm out of thread and will pick up more tomorrow. I now know why people pick quilting patterns without a lot of starts and stops.
Rodney