I now know how I broke my Bernina!
See the hank of loose white thread? This is what the repairman found behind my flywheel!!!!!!
I now remember one day when I was winding several bobbins....and had changed from light to dark thread. As I wind them, I tend to just look around while pushing on the foot pedal and let the bobbins spin! It took me a while to notice that there was a light thread caught in the fly wheel....so I stopped, broke the thread and wondered if I had gotten it all.....as the machine still sewed fine, I did nothing to investigate further and soon forgot all about this!
You can see in the photo how I rig up the thread to use these large quilter's spools (I really like the 100% cotton thread, a bit finer than most) for use on my home machine. I set the spool in a small jar so that it doesn't roll around, and I tape a safety pin to use the "eye" to guide the thread to the machine! Unfortunately the downfall was this is all out of sight behind the machine and I was not paying attention anyway!!!!!
If I had gone to the service with the question about the fly wheel, immediately, it could have saved the machine! Hindsight!
At least I don't have to feel bad about stitching on my paper quilts...they were not the cause of the problem!
