Judy,
thanks for the new tidbits about the thread, i took notes on that.
Well Girls...my salesgirl came out this evening after work. She changed the tension to #3 and it is sewing so much better!!! She's a sweetheart for driving the distance to help me out.
my stitching is still not the perfect uniform stitching that they promise for using the encoders. But hopefully with much practice it will get to where I'm happy with it.
Keep me posted as to how things are working out for the both of you.