Cricket, The top probably just pulls off...just pull up on it. Most 158's have little catches under the lid & they just pull off. Yes, it's a 158.1703.
And yeah, just go towards the red area & the stitches will get progressively shorter...the far end of the red area should be 0 SPI. And that's for straight or zigzag stitches.
I'm not a quilter, other than small projects like bags, placemats, etc....I'm primarily a garment sewer. But for small projects, mine straight line quilts just fine....with or without a walking foot. To be honest, I've not tried free motion quilting on any of my Kenmores but, my 1755 has a button to drop the feed dogs. I drop them to darn jeans for the grandkids. My other 2 have a feed cover plate....gonna have to try it.
Last edited by path49; 05-20-2014 at 07:06 PM.