Originally Posted by quiltinggrandmaca
Yesterday I went out and bought the Sapphire 875. It sure is going to take some getting use to, but will be a great machine I think. It has a lot more options than my Huskystar224 has, so am really excited about learning it. Hope it is a good machine.
I bought the 870 about two years ago; didn't know that another model had come out. Congratulations!
This machine can be intimidating to those of us who sort of "leapt" up to such a fancy machine. I need to go back and take the starter classes again!
Did you notice that the machine doesn't have a lever (behind the needle) to raise and lower the foot? For me, it's been really hard to get used to. I find it difficult to accurately line up the fabric the first time; i.e., I'm used to raising the foot a bit and squigging the fabric to where I want it. For that reason, I use my Baby Lock for piecing and the Sapphire for FMQ. It's great for that!!
A couple of people suggested buying the throat plate (is that what it's called?) marked in inches (the machine comes with metric marking). Unfortunately that didn't help. What did help, after some fussing with the problem, is to use the needle and hand wheel to place the fabric before hitting the pedal to lower the foot.
If I didn't have my Baby Lock as an alternative, I might be better at using the Sapphire by now. As they say, practice makes perfect.
Hope you enjoy your machine. It really is a nice one and has lots of coooool features!