thank you all for your suggestions and ideas! i have some solid things to go on now, things i would not have thought of before :) i'll let her know what you all said and let her take it from there. i agree, i love my little machine, i wouldn't trade it for anything! the only thing i wish it had was a fmq that wasn't so f with the mq...its going to take me years to be able to turn out a real beauty!!