Thanks for the tips everyone. The needle I use is the embroidery foot..large open hole. But I think I have a single hole foot so I'll try that and the thread spool thing...that might be a fixer too...the spool of thread is right there on top with little length to unwind..that might be my problem...needs some length to unwind before going into the thread path. Thanks everyone! Will let you know how it works! I was really bummed yesterday as I had just started getting good a FMQ and then this happened!