Okay, well, after my latest experience with the machine and everyone's responses, I'm going to have to say, it looks like I have a super, super fussy machine and it only strengthens my belief that I'll only be able to use it to piece quilt tops and nothing heavy duty.
My nine-patch quilt was sadly a victim of a laundromat's answer to a shredder, almost the entire binding was just shredded to pieces and with the fiancé gone, I figured I'd be able to put a bigger binding on it and call it a night. I was using that same hand-sewn stitch that I'm now starting to hate, was almost three quarters of the way around the quilt and the machine jammed up again. I wasn't about to spend the night trying to clear it out, I used a black binding, so therefore, I'm using a black thread and without a good, small flashlight, it's going to have to wait until the sun is up for me to clear the jam. It's back in the same corner and out comes the big girl. I was able to finish putting the binding on, took a break, I'm now getting it folded over and zig zagged (I'm going around it twice and the fiancé is banned from taking it to that same laundromat again when it needs washed, I'm not going to have that happen again), took another break to soothe my nerves with some dark chocolate and coffee and jumped on here.
Maybe the machine has an issue with the stitch I'm using? I am using a walking foot, so maybe the stitch and the walking foot aren't playing nice? What a conundrum!