Susan, we've seen the same thing happening-and watched closely when it was happening in the same spot on multiple orders. I don't have an explanation of 'why', but we know 'how'....when the color finished sewing, the thread was not 'cut' and as the needle head moved to the next needle, the thread was stretched out and then snapped off-and since it was pulled so tight, it pulled itself out of the needle. Fine tuning the MT is about all we could do to prevent it, and making sure the pressure foot was down enough to hold the material down when the thread should cut also worked. We have so little 'hours' on our machine that we know it isn't a worn cutter or anything. Roland