I have a Bernina 163 and I have two throat plates, one is the straight stitch throat plate and I LOVE IT. Wouldn't piece a quilt without. I also have a Viking Sapphire and a Lily 550. I'm looking for straight stitch throat plates for both of them.

Today, while at the Bernina Dealer, I asked them this question. Response: it could be that the machine needs cleaning and oiling. If lint gets back into the area of the bottom of the machine, it can't be seen, but can cause a lot of problems. The other most common problem is, in fact, the timing and where the needle stops. So their recommendation is to have it professionally cleaned, oiled and timed.

Ps. If you google for the single hole you should find one it has a red part to show you it has a single hole. I'm not convinced this will help. Try setting everything to its normal and retry. If you have grandchildren have they fiddled .
Pleas try heig it does help.c

My straight stitch plate was $53 from the local Bernina dealer about a year ago, just to give you an idea on price.

I have a Bernina 1230 and it did the same thing - I started using the leaders and enders which solved the problem. I just figured it was the machine until I got my Babylock Quilters Pro midarm - which does not require a leader/ender and does not chew the fabric. Not sure why but I will take it.....

It has driven me batty! I am going to pick up the single stitch plate today, and see how that works. It's also newly oiled and newly needled. I haven't really played around with the tension on this machine but ill look into that too. It's always been set at the regular 3 setting. Do you guys find that tension can really vary that much if you're just using standard quilting fabric? Nothing fancy, nothing heavy or light? Normal unexciting Gutermann thread?