Good news here - I took the bottom of the machine apart (planning to oil it) couldn't find my machine oil - but did do a good cleaning and found a lot more lint and fuzz than I expected. So I gave her a good cleaning, changed to a smaller needle which plays much better with the Bottom Line thread. I sewed my sample block of ljdugas choice and it came out just fine. I'm so relieved that I can continue with you all on this boom. MamaHauser thanks so much for your offer to help me with troubleshooting my machine issues!