Mystery Solved

I got some great advice for how to fix the problems with my Juki, so I changed the needle, gave it a good top to bottom cleaning, and checked all the contacts and connections.  Yesterday I loaded a small charity quilt to see if the cleaning made any kind of difference.  It quilted beautifully without a single skipped stitch, BUT as I was quilting the second to the last row a small metal piece dropped out of the machine onto the quilt!  I was focusing on the quilt, so I really didn't notice where the piece came from and I couldn't see any place inside the machine that seemed to be missing a piece, but it obviously came from the machine somewhere.  I sent a few pictures to my friend, Kathy, who has the same machine, asking if she had any idea where the piece may have come from.  She emailed me right back with the answer...it broke off of the hopping foot!  Apparently this piece makes the foot hop as the needle raises, so there's a good chance that  
this little bugger has been the culprit of my quilting problems.  Kathy even offered her hopping foot to me because she doesn't use hers!  Thank heaven for good friends in quilty places!

Help!

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My Juki TL-98Q has always been a bit temperamental, but she was really having fits the other day while I was trying to quilt a charity quilt.  I have the machine mounted on a Grace frame with a stitch regulator and was quilting with the same brand cotton thread that I always use with a 100/16 needle.  The quilt was made with regular quilt shop cotton fabric and the same brand cotton batting that I have been using right along. For some reason the machine would act like it was "hung up" on something and make teeny tiny stitches and then it would "break loose" and make a couple of giant stitches before settling back into a normal stitch pattern.  This "hiccup" would also leave a thread snarl on the back side of the quilt.  I tried putting in a new needle, rethreading and changing the bobbin, all to no avail.  Cleaning and oiling didn't seem to help either.  By the time I got to the last few rows of the quilt I switched to a longer stitch length on the stitch regulator and the problem stopped.  I'm not convinced that this was the cause or fix for the problem though because a friend who also has a machine like mine said that she has experienced the same problem, but she does not have a stitch regulator.  Does anyone out there know what might be causing this problem?

Some Assembly Required

Yes! It's here! For those of you who haven't heard (Could there possibly be anyone left who I haven't told?) I purchased a gently used Juki TL-98Q machine and a Grace quilting frame from a friend who is upgrading to a larger system. I have lots of reading to do and a few pieces to put together, but hopefully it won't be long and I'll be happily quilting away on my new baby!