No, prior to the plop I did not experience tension problems, and the best part... the machine kept stitching away. It was I who stopped to scream and grab the oily assembly off the quilt as fast as possible. The only thought going through my mind was "oh no... it's 5:30 pm who can still Fedex today!" I called my longarmer friend Natalie to see if this had ever happened to her... Nope! But, good news... she happened to have a brand new tension assembly! YEAH, joyous news -- now I only had to wonder if this were the only problem...
Anyway -- two hours and a new tension assembly later the machine was back up and running smoothly. It turned out that the set screw that holds the tension assembly in place was worn and my assembly was still good, just "old" -- could use new pads and springs, so its new purpose in life will be the emergency-use assembly!
Needless to say, it was just another daily dilemma in the life of a longarmer. Oh, and not a single drop of oil got on the quilt - woohoo!!!