I'm pretty sure the problem is because you're not using a foot. You need a darning type foot or any type of foot with a spring in it ("jumping" foot). Your machine is probably a typical short-shank machine. What you can do is take its regular foot with you to JoAnn's or a sewing machine dealership in order to find the right shank darning foot for your machine. I know that some instruction manuals say you can work without a foot, but I think it causes the problem you are having with bringing up the bobbin thread. You could try covering the feed dogs and using your regular foot (not your walking foot) and see if that allows you to bring up the thread. The problem with the regular foot is that it continuously presses down on the fabric, interfering with your ability to move the quilt sandwich freely. A jumping foot presses on the fabric only during stitch formation and lifts up in-between stitches to allow you to move the quilt freely.

You need some type of foot to help hold the fabric down. Your local joanns sells a free motion foot for that machine, its around $12. I have a singer futura 250 and it has never done very well at free motion. I finally gave up and purchased a new machine. Good luck!

I have found that one of my machines newer computerize needs to have a foot on due to the sensors in it and will not work without one, while my oldie but goody one with no computer will work without a foot.

This is the method that works the best for me with my machine. Give it a try and see if it helps. Good luck.

you need a free-motion foot (sometimes called a hopping foot- or a darning foot) the machine is not (recognizing) what you are trying to do- because you do not have a foot on for it to identify

This has me a bit confused. When I FMQ, I lower the feed dogs and change the presser foot to a darning foot then set the stitch length to "0". You state you remove the presser foot. You need to have some kind of foot on the machine.
Are you doing free motion or stitch in the ditch? You have to have some kind of foot on the machine. Hope this helps a little.

Prism99 has the right info!
peace

I would think that you need a darning foot. I always have my feed dogs down. I use a top stitch needle.

I have 2 machines & I always leave my feed dogs up on both of them. You probably need to invest in a free motion-spring type foot. I've seen them on different sites starting at about $7.00 & up.

They apparently don't make a darning foot for my machine, at least that is what I've been told. However, I did put my regular foot back on, loosened the tension setting to "darn" and it worked :) Not sure if I'm ready to really give it a go on a well-pieced quilt just yet, but I'll practice some and hopefully soon be able to try!