As I hang my head in shame...
 

Yesterday I was trying to teach myself to machine sew appliqué with black thread for a more vintage look to a UFO quilt. While sewing merrily along I heard a strange "kachunk" sound and something light colored appeared on top of my stitching. I had a "what the ?" moment, carefully removed the fabric from under the needle, and held it up to see what I was seeing. It was a huge ball of lint that the needle had pull up from below! I guessed I needed to clean it out, so I searched for 20 minutes for the handy dandy odd little screw driver that came with the machine, gave up and used a screw driver bit from DH to disassemble the throat plate. I usually do this once every month or so. I now wonder how long it had really been since I had last even looked. (I have marked it on my calendar so this will not happen again.)
I had to use tweezers, forceps, small paint brushes, and Q-tips and worked for over two hours. It looked like a blanket factory!
The photo below is the pile of lint that was cleaned out of the needle compartment in the course of two hours of cleaning! (The scrap of fabric is 6"x6" for reference) Let his be a reminder to all of you to use this weekend to really deep clean your bobbin race area, to avoid the big hole it left in my fabric. The "quilt police" might not know if you did, but your machine might give you a warning as mine did, or it could seize up and cost money to fix.
I nearly ruined my ability to say my machines "never" go in for servicing.....😜

Wow, that's a good sized lump of lint!! Every time I change my bobbin I remove the shuttle hook and brush out the entire area. It's so clean you could eat in there!!

In my never ending attempts to make sure I clean in there regularly I am now trying to never fill more than two - three bobbins at one time. When my bobbins run out I know it's time to clean.

I'm so glad nothing major happened to your machine. I had a time last year when mine was doing odd things and making me say naughty words. I did not realize that it needed a good cleaning.

Glad you didn't have more damage. Lint shortens machine life.

Those dust bunnies got in the corner where I have no access to and stopped my Bernina dead in her tracks. Thank goodness it just need servicing. Never had that happen to my 1530 again.

Well your machine coughed up a good size lint phlegm! :D

That was worth the effort!

Dh, myself get haircuts 2nd week of the month. Both machines get a lint/machine cleaning in the same week. I do the bobbin area after I use the machine because I'm checking to see how much thread is in the bobbin.

Thanks for the reminder!!!