Chain piecing Woes...
 

Why is it that when I am chain piecing and I put the first piece in, sometimes my machine will sew along like nothing and other time it acts like it's trying to EAT the first 1/4" of my material and it just gets all messed up? I have to take it out, remove all the balled up stitches and iron it down, then usually give it a lead fabric and yet, the next one will go through with no problem.

How do I avoid this?

Thanks, Watson

Look up Bonnie Hunter's "leaders and enders." These are little pieces of scrap fabric (or not) that you place under the presser foot to begin stitching. Then you stitch right off of this to sew your first piece together. I usually begin my stitching right in the middle of the piece so that I don't have this "swallowing up" issue.

When mine started to do that I discovered there was substantial lint in the feeddogs...cleaning eliminated the problem.

Sometimes this problem is due to a dull needle or the wrong type of needle. One of the advantages to chain piecing is to eliminate this problem. Also, chain piecing is made more difficult when starting on triangular corners.

Like GailG, I suggest using a leader piece, so in the event you never figure out a way to eliminate the issue at least the problem is on a scrap that you can just toss and not fret over! The leader scrap can be used lots of times, over and over until it becomes too oversewn with thread, then just start a new scrap.

Leaders & enders are the best option, IMHO. With a little pre planning, if you use Bonnie Hunter's method you get bonus quilts.
http://quiltville.com/leadersenders.shtml
The other options are to hold both the bobbin and top tail threads to the back of your foot as you start to stitch and/or invest in a straight stitch needle plate for your machine.

I bought a single hole face plate and that stopped the problem for me. Try putting the first piece a little further underneath the foot and backstitching a few stitches to the end. I tried leaders and didn't like doing that.

I was having a similar problem, took my machine in for servicing where they adjusted feed dogs, tension and all kinds of stuff - so if the other suggestions don't work, you might need to take it in.

I use leaders and enders as well but I noticed a new trend. I usually don't have this issue due to using leaders and enders but it started happening to me just the last few days. I realized I had a bobbin in with poor tension. When winding the bobbin, the thread had slipped out of one of the guides so the tension on the bobbin was not good, the thread wound on the bobbin was not nice and tight but spongy. I had wound the full bobbin and was loath to waste the thread so sewed a test strip with it. The tension was fine for sewing so I decided to use it and found I was getting the birds nest issue when chain piecing just as you describe. I am thinking it has something to do with my "spongy" wound bobbin. I am still to frugal (cheap!!) to give up on the bobbin and will continue to use it up but I am making sure I am putting some tension on my chain as I add each new unit. That is solving the issue for me. I am pretty sure once I use up this bobbin and load one that is wound correctly I will quit having the issue.

Feline fanatic - When that happened to me I put the "spongy" bobbin on the thread spindle and rewound the thread onto a new bobbin. Worked like a charm.