I finally was able to take my machine in and the spring on the BSR was replaced and this immediately fixed my problem. I got the impression that this may be a recently recurring issue on newer bsr feet. when mine wasn't working properly, and I was determined to finish my quilt, I went ahead without the BSR and quilted free-motion on my own. It came out surprisingly well. Of course, I better not admit that to my "better half" after explaining to him how important the BSR feature was!
Thanks to everyone for suggestions and responding.