After a clean head and a conversation with the tech, I learned that you have to adjust the tension on this machine with the presser foot down. I also noticed that when the presser foot is up, it does something to the dial and it appears as though it's a different tension. You put the presser foot down again, and voila! It's at the same tension you originally had. Honestly!
Anyhow, I was also (**sigh of deep embarrassment**) not threading correctly. With new eyes in a new day, I was missing something.
So now my machine is better. I do still notice that the bobbin thread is still showing up on the top although generally better with the tension at 1. I can't go less with this and this seems to be the remaining problem. (There also was a bit of puckering when straight lining but I don't notice with FMQ and that's the only thing I'm using this machine for.) The bobbin tension seems good and I don't want to go fiddling with it. Is it normal to have a small bit of bobbin thread showing through? No top thread seems to be showing up on the bottom. The bottom looks perfect!