Oh, I feel your pain. I've had my longarm for a year and still get the LA Blues! I've tried a few of the mirror/flashlight suggestions and the best way for me to see the stitches underneath is to hold my Walmart mirror (about 7x8" with handle) under at the backside, at an angle to the quilt and shine the flashlight right onto the mirror(small LED with several lights from Harbor Freight). I can get the mirror really close to the stitches and, therefore, easy to see the stitch quality. The small telescoping mirror and the door mirror lying on the table didn't work well for me. I keep them right on the table and check frequently since ripping is difficult when the quilt is on the LA. Also, you said you skipped a slot when rethreading. Did you know you can cut the thread above the cone, tie the new cone to the thread from the previous one that's hanging on the machine and from the front pull the new thread through all the "slots"? It's so much easier than rethreading every time! Hang in there...it does get easier.