I usually do my free motion quilting on an old Kenmore that can drop the feed dogs and the middle of the needle plate can be reversed for straight or zig zag stitching. I've been using the same darning foot for years but not exclusively with this machine.
I've been seeing an occasional speck of something darkish falling onto the quilt I'm trying to get quilted and just couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Yesterday I noticed the darning foot was sort of dragging instead of hopping the way they should. The lever that rides on the needle plate clamp has worn a hole (or slot) in the needle plate. The specks are actually the metal coming from that slot and falling on my quilt! These are not metal shavings and almost look like some sort of grease specks.
I went to a sewing machine repair shop to get a different style darning foot (after calling every place in the phone book, sewing machine stores, quilt stores, fabric stores, even Sears parts dept.)and he told me he's seen this happen quite a lot and can also be caused by the walking foot rubbing against the needle clamp. And he said it happens to all brands.
Has anyone else had this problem? He only carried the same style so I went to a LQS and got the other style that rides on top by a horizontal thingy instead of the slanted thingy. If you know what I mean, even I don't know by this stage.
I'm not even going to try any quilting tonight even though I am way behind the schedule I set for myself. I had hoped I could work two full nights on this and have it in the mail this weekend but that's just looking impossible.
Judie