Did you maybe drop the feed dogs?

Feed dogs--that was my first tho't also!

No, the feed dogs were still up. The stitches are fine with a regular foot. I think it is the walking foot. I didn't do anything with it last night. I thought we could both use a little break. When I take my son to school later I'll see if I have better luck today. I really hope that I do. I need to have this completed by September 13th!

Have you got the feed dog pressure set to 0?

I had this behavior of tiny stitches when using a generic walking foot on my old White machine and I had to replace the foot. If I remember correctly, the walking feet just sort of fell apart, the soles wouldn't stay on anymore, etc.. Those walking feet just did not last for me. At $20 a pop and they only lasted through quilting one quilt it was getting expensive for me! But, then, I too bought the 440QE and have not had a moments trouble with Bernina's walking foot. You could be right that it is the foot especially since you are having the same problem using a small swatch. I know it is a hassle but at this point I think I would take my foot into the dealer (with some sandwiched swatches) and compare its performance against a walking foot that the dealer owns. I am sorry you are having this trouble - it sounds very frustrating. PS: I expect my Bernina and its accessories to work flawlessly each and every time - so far I have been lucky and love my machine. I have only quilted about 15 quilts using the walking foot but it is still going strong.

When I cleaned my machine, after that feel of something wasn't sounding right, I found a tiny piece of a straight pin stuck in the feeder. I'm glad I stopped immediately when I felt this - could have ruined my machine!

It may be the walking foot. Sometimes it needs a drop of oil too. I have had the walking foot arm not moving properly (It was stalled in the up position and didn't come down to move the feet. Also make sure that the arm of the foot is attached properly to the needle bar.

I was told by my dealer to use a little WD40 on my walking foot, move the arm up and down manually and then let it sit on a paper towel for awhile to absorb excess oil. Hope this works for you.

It sounds like the quilt is getting hung up on something and not feeding freely. I have had this happen and had to figure out to place the quilt on sewing machine cabinet with the back against the wall and an ironing board to the left to help hold up the quilt. Hope that helps.

There is a Yahoo group for Bernina machines. I would ask there, where there is lots of Bernina specific experience, including a Bernina tech.