Thanks for the great suggestions... dancing mmmm, that could be a royal treat -- no Youtube videos please. The glass of wine might be the best suggestion. The needle is new as we watched them take it out of the package and put it in the machine while we were there.
It was the floor model and our instructions consisted of several staffers offering suggestions and saying to call them if there were problems. We'll have to talk with them some more but that weekend (when we picked it up) was awful as my Dad was in hospital from having a stroke and we picked it up in a super fast hurry. Dad is staying with us for a short time so I haven't gotten to play as much as I would like.
The tension has been adjusted several different times and I think we may have that fixed. The thread is what they said they always used in those machines.
We have a couple charity quilts to practice on but I'd be embarrassed to tears if we did the work on them like we're seeing right now. I know we can do this because my DH & I can do anything we put our minds to do. Now where oh where did we put our minds?