Thanks for the tip. I would have never thought of this and may have assumed my machine needed major adjusting.

Have a watch of this video. I found it helpful for tension issues.

http://youtu.be/Q1mRhcquZTM

I always jump to that conclusion...it's my nature. Hope this helped someone else. I just hope I'll remember to check it myself next time too.

Thanks for the link. I watched the first part of it and need to go back and finish it. Looks helpful.

Great ideas! I got a piece of thread out with a hair off of my head. Worked! LOL!!

thank you for all the great info. Sunday, I started to sew a rag quilt for my granddaughter's 1st birthday. I had the most trouble ever sewing. Being new, I had no clue what was going on. My thread would either bunch up all over the back, or it would keep breaking and it even sometimes seemed like it just quit. Hard to explain that one. I would take it out, rethread and sew a little more and then more trouble. I tried everything, Finally, I threw the bobbin in the trash can and got another one, no more troubles. Like the guy in video said, sometimes they warp. Don't know if that is what happened, but it fixed the problem. Of course, having to buy bobbins cheap from ebay from China probably isn't helping me much either. Just not much money to work with so I am always trying to find things I need cheaper and sometimes, that just isn't the thing to do.

Thanks for the tips.

Yes-machine bobbin areas like to be clean. One more idea I learned about on a FMQ Craftsy class was to use a bobbin genie in the bobbin case. Mine is a drop in bobbin but I'm sure they will work in a front bobbin case. Good luck.

I totally agree withe Sebrita and thank her for sharing this important tip as I think a lot of sewing machine users fail to realise just how sensitive and finely tuned the sewing mechanism is. All of my Quilter groups that I have start off with the 1st lesson is how to clean, oil and look after their machines along with when and how to change needles, and which ones to use.

They are taught how to clean, oil and defuzz their machine, often but I also suggest at least once a year they take the bottom off their machine completely and give a good all over clean from below, you will be amazed how much lint, thread piece etc; get in their. Besides a good little torch, I really recommend a good quality tiny brush, similar to this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5PCS-7-6-L...item1c3734109d cheap but really well made, being for the medical industry and also a good pair of tweezers.

I do advise at the for the very last desperate measure to touch the bobbin tension screw but if needs be needs must, I normally advise them to have me there to supervise, just for a second pair of eyes.

Sounds like you are a thorough teacher.