Well, it's been a difficult couple of weeks. First of all, I've been so busy with other obigations, that I've not spent as much time as I would like learning the new machine. Then... where to start. Since I bought the machine on consignment, the owners of the shop, although they came and installed the machine for me, were not knowledgeable about my brand of frame. So what I learned by watching YouTube videos, but mostly by talking to a wonderful representative of the Grace Company who downloaded operating manuals and parts lists to my tablet, was that one of the bars was installed backwards and that the take-up bar on the frame actually moved forward and back while the machine quilted. Getting this all working entailed quite a bit of crawling around under the frame, but I finally got it. The tension was set poorly and was leaving eyelashes on the back of the quilt, but when I tightened the top tension, the fabric puckered. So I loosened the bobbin tension, lowered the upper tension and finally got that balanced. Learning the computer program wa another challenge. I spent a fair amount of time, yelling at the videos or tearing my hair out trying to read the manuals, but I actually made a lot of progress today. What didn't work was the spacing when I set the second zone. That's for another day. Oh, I missed telling you how long it took me to learn to load the quilt layers properly. I had bought Red Snappers and clips for floating the quilt, but I decided that for me as a beginner, pinning was the way to go. The stitching running horizontally looks great when running with the computer, but the vertical stitches are not always in line. I'll have to work on that fix too. I'll call Kimberly at Grace again, but I like to give her a few days in between my calls to recover. I'm sure that eventually I'll get this all down pat, but right now the learning curve is really steep. And I haven't even begun to learn how to "repair" the pattern when the bobbin runs out or the thread breaks. Oh, well. They say learning new skills is really good for the aging mind. If this is true, my mind should have gotten about 10 years younger after all this. Thanks for asking, Donna. I wish one of you experienced longarmers lived close by. All suggestions are welcome.

Keep at it, you will conquer!

Theresa

Thanks for sharing. I, too, have been wondering.

bkay

Wow, Lois! What a trial! I have heard that the Grace Co. has excellent customer service. I have a Grace frame. I think I want a Grace machine to go with it, but there are no dealers near me for support. We have HandiQuilter in town but I know I can’t use their machines on my frame.

I have plenty of time to do research since I’m off work today & tomorrow, waiting for the arrival of Hurricane Ian.

Donna

Stay safe, all you Floridians.

Things are going so much better. I repaired the pattern after the bobbin ran out. Piece of cake. The woman who used to quilt for me years ago came over today and set up the laser so I can do pantographs. Fun. She also taught me to use the Red Snappers and said that they would loosen up with use, so I'm trying those again. Everything is getting easier. I may even be ready to try quilting a real pieced quilt in the new future. I guess anything worth doing takes a bit of practice.

See! We all said you could do it! and you have. Bravo!

Theresa

You go, Lois! I'm very impressed.

Grats to you Lois! Hope that learning curve starts to flatten out for you. I have a friend that absolutely loves her APQS machine and is always asking me to try it out. I guess I'm just set in my ways quilting on my standard machine.