Thanks for the suggestions, I will follow up. When I say it's dropping stitches, the needle goes down, but doesn't catch the bobbin thread and comes back up, and does this multiple times (sometimes 4-5 stitches) before catching the bobbin thread and creating the next stitch. I'm moving slowly, hear all the sounds, and it happens in both modes. Crazy, huh! I've used both microtex, quilting and all purpose needles with no change. And it's random too...fine for a while and then dropping. I will move on to my next project, also an old quilt top, and pray it doesn't keep happening! Thanks so much.