UPDATE: mine, too, is accepting other threads now. i may not have been too good about the tension before. a also bought needles with a larger eye, and bought a heaver weight thread that i want to experiment with.
i saw a good video, i can't remember where, that showed some guy who attached a board right across the front of the quilter, above the quilt itself, but not touching. he placed his panto there and aimed his laser from the front of his machine. that way he was able to see exactly what he was doing. i want to check out the frame and see if i can figure that out.
since last time, i did buy the table extension and that opens up a world of possibilities. your straight edge balances and allows you to stitch perfectly straight lines, although long diagonals are still hard to get right, as on any machine. i also got the open-toe foot, but haven't used it yet. i got them both at all-brands.
the prices were better there than any other place, although the shipping time was awful. maybe that was a one-time thing, i don't know.
i also changed over to the lizzie stitch because i felt i should learn to be versatile. i still don't use it all the time, but at least i use it occasionally.
i have a microhandle, not the real one, and i don't like it. you have to get down to it really, really close, and it's very uncomfortable. i find that if i sit in a chair the right height, i see well enough to steer it properly. and if you get very close, you end up working in your own shadow.
all in all, i still love it. whenever i go to a show, i still try all the others out, and i'm not overly impressed. the bells and whistles would be nice but i just want a reliable machine that i trust to do the job and has good tech support and a nearby dealer.
there was a post recently about setup time. i load the frame in about 30-45 minutes. that's pinning the backing to the leader, pinning and rolling the backing onto the belly bar, and machine basting the batting and top to the backing. i float the batting and the top so i can tweak it as i roll it along. it also includes clamping the sides to ready the whole thing for quilting.
how are you liking yours so far?