Setting the stitch lenght to 1.5 is not a requirement, but a recommendation. The frequency the needle moves at is determined by the speed of the sewing as well as the stitch lenght. If you stitches are set too long the needle will stay up longer waiting until is time to move down again to achieve the desired stitch lenght. It is a very short time, but it may cause your stitches to look jerky. If you set up the stitches to be short, 1.5 or smaller, the needle will be ready to come down any time, and the speed of the stitches will only be determined by the speed you move the fabric at.

I do have one question. Because the sensor of the machine is a little red light on the fabric, I heard somewhere the the BSR does not work on red fabric. To me movement is movement, regardless of the color of the fabric. Have anyone tried this? I went to try and found no red fabric in my stash to go play with. I guess is time to go get some.

Maria

I have used it on a red border before and did not have a problem with it sensing motion.
I am having a problem with the stitches at 1.5 instead of 2, THEY"RE HARDER TO RIP!!!
I did so much ripping last night. I don't know why I am having so much trouble!!!

I will try again this afternoon/evening. I sure hope it cooperates better!!!

Mine works fine on red fabric.

It's worth every penny to me, but I bought it when I first started quilting, so I didn't learn to FMQ without it. Also quilting with the BSR is a different motion than quilting with it, since the amount of pressure on the foot pedal is not important.

For mine, yes, I can run it without the foot pedal (cool trick, but difficult to stop exactly where I want it). However, the 440 (I don't have) is the one where the hand's free stitching gets faster or slower depending on how fast you move the fabric. Mine's the 430, which when you turn on the hand's free, it goes at the same speed regardless of how fast or slow I move the fabric. There's a button where I can make it go faster or slower, but it works independently of me moving anything.

When I attach the foot and plug in the cord, "BSR" shows up on my machine display. I think they said that's all I need to engage it, but I'm not sure... It's a solid "BSR" not flashing or anything. Do I need to press something to make it engage??

Yeah, I think I'm doing something wrong, since the foot pedal pressure IS important when I quilt...

Do you have to run the BSR with the hand's free? Some of the other posts hinted at it, but yours seems to say it's okay to do it with the foot pedal??

I have the 440, so it might be different, but I do have to press a button to get the BSR to engage. I press button that's under the right hand edge of the display. Do you have a manual? (And yes, it says BSR in little type before you engage it. After it's engaged it says BSR 1 or BSR 2 in big letters.)

I just looked at my manual, and it's the same manual for the 440QE and the 430. The BSR is standard on the 440 and optional on the 430; the 440 has more stitches and more memory, but they are remarkably similar, so I'm sure that you need to press the BSR button to activate BSR mode.

You don't have to use the start/stop button; you can use the foot control with BSR. I've actually never used the start/stop button for anything.

I'll feel somewhat embarrassed if all I needed to do was press a button to make it work, but that will also be good news! Thank you for looking. I'll hunt for my manual this afternoon.

I appreciate all of your help :)