I took matters in to my own capable hands last night. I played with the bobbin tension. ( OMG, Don't tell the tension police!) What I found is still a PITA! I have to increase the bobbin tension to do a straight stitch and decrease it to do any fancy stitches. Just ain't right. So I'll just have to keep my little screw driver handy until I can afford a better machine. It would be interesting to know which machines other quilters have found to work well. $ mid range.