A revelation! I can’t wait to try it! Thank you.

Interesting tip about straight stitching and tension. Thank you.

I too am trying with little success to free motion quilt. I found using rulers to guide is a satisfying way for me to quilt on my machine.
This is not real fancy and I tried quilting in sections.
Attachment 631274

I am starting to wonder if, in addition to my what I may be doing wrong, there is something wrong with my machine. It was repaired last year and had a problem with the timing I think. I have FMQed successfully in the past so, I can't be sure. What's different now is the size of the quilt and the thread. One change at a time, I built up my table area with boxes level to the machine, I changed the needle to a ball point 14, then to a 16. Still have shredding at the needle. I lowered the tension. I finally made it through the next part of the quilting but oh boy, what torture! Lots of restarting when the thread broke. Still some hopping and choking and even some loops on the bottom this time. I'm using Coats and Clark poly thread. Is that too low quality? I tried three different ways to upload a photo (2.5MB jpeg) and got an error message every time: failed to upload. ::sigh::

i had that problem with one of my machines and it turned out it was a bad hook - I traded for a newer
version of same machine because It balanced out the cost is the repair towards a new machine. No more thread issues. I FMQ with a top stitch needle and any thread but Madeira cotton which is fine for piecing. There are many different needles to try. Some of us get good success with different ones

Thank you, Were you able to successfully straight stitch or did it just become a problem with FMQ?
I would definitely consider trading but I bought the machine on Amazon, maybe, ten years ago. I love the machine though. It's a workhorse and has served me well- for the most part. : )
Michele

Still struggling. I've been able to do a lot of FMQ on this project and I've tried many of the suggestions posted in response to my SOS. After many hours of torture I've realized that sewing over the seams is often where everything breaks down. The needle seems to stick and yank the quilt up, stitches are skipped, the bobbin thread can go off synch, and the thread can break near the needle. I'm currently using a 14 ball point needle (waiting for top stitch needles from Schmetz), 50 weight cotton Gutermann and Aurifil, and I built up the table around the machine. But I can't remove the bulk of the seams. Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions? This is torture!!! https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/frown.png

The old one did straight stitch fine. Are you using a hopping FMQ foot? They seem to go over seams easier.

If that means a foot with the spring, yes I am.

Well I wonder what the issue is. Maybe you will have better luck with the different needles. I think even the same machine might like a needle/thread combination that is different from its twin.