it took forever for me to figure out the settings on my brother. when it finally hit, i wrote the settings on the machine with a sharpie (extra fine point). but I played for hours with practice pieces. then went back over them with a different color thread so i could see where i was. i'm comfortable enough with simple things. still practicing on feathers. just have fun with it. it will get there. if you get aggravated, quit for awhile. don't worry about crossing lines, just get used to the feel and control first. fine tune later.