HELP! Thread doesn't catch while quilting
 

I was tooling along just fine working a new FMQ motif, stopped for dinner, and when I came back: I could no longer quilt! The stitches will hold fine for a few inches and then they stop catching the bobbin thread! I've cleaned & oiled my machine, replaced the needle, adjusted the tension, and rethreaded both the bobbin and the spool and it still is not working correctly. My sewing machine is a Janome Harmony 8080.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Needle in correctly and all the way up? Bobbin thread going in correct direction?

Those are my first two thoughts.

I had that problem yesterday and found lots of lint under my bobbin holder. Seemed to work better after I cleaned that out. My machine is due for a cleaning and overhaul at the dealer though. Got to do that soon!

Occasionally I had the same thing happen, when I notice it, I will thread my machine again and pop out the bobbin and put it back in, if all else fails take the bobbin case apart. Not really sure why that happens. It is frustrating for sure.

Did you lower your presser foot? With the darning/hopping foot on I over look it all the time.

Is it working yet? If not, I would first check to see if the machine sews okay when not doing free motion. If it doesn't, another thing to try is a new needle. If it does, it could be that after you are moving the fabric too quickly, or the fabric is getting hung up on something, possibly deflecting the needle so it's not in the correct position to pick up the bobbin thread.

Same thing happened to me last week. I was quilting with YLI for machine quilting and I changed my needle for a Universal 80 and it did the job! I took that advice from Leah Day and it worked for me!