I find that I want to blow the lint out of the bobbin area, every time I change the bobbin. I mostly use Omni thread, but the lint is amazingly thick in there. I've been oiling with almost every bobbin change, but feel like I want to stitch a little on the batting so the initial oil doesn't get on my quilt.

I use a lot of SoFine #50 or higher and it's never been fuzzy--are you sure you didn't get a different Superior thread? The King Tut is very fuzzy .

It's definitely "the" Superior thread. It's number 401, 50 weight. I haven't used it enough to see if produces lint. It came with the machine along with a spool of Omni and King Tut and a book showing all their threads. Holding the spools of King Tut and the So fine side-by-side, the Tut is smooth, and the So-Fine is fuzzy.

I bought my sit down machine at the Chicago show a couple years ago. They had such fantastic deals. Anyway, I start along an edge usually. I don't do a lot of pinning. I get started and re-smooth and re-pin as needed. My machine instructions (Bernina sitdown) say to oil every bobbin.

Never have seen a fuzzy spool of so fine. It is great to use and produces very little lint.

For a meander I would not start in the center but rather just outside one of the edges in the middle. Then roam around until everything is filled and end just outside the border again. When you over-oil, there is a chance that you transfer oil to the thread which will come through the quilt. Not pretty. I have done that once - fortunately, it was on a practice piece and didn't matter. Enjoy your new machine.

I have a 22 inch sit down Gammill Charm.. I spray baste and almost always start at the bottom right corner. and work diagonally back and forth until I reach the upper left corner. This seems to work best for me, but I'm sure you'll find your rhythm soon enough.

Looks like you've gotten plenty of suggestions, I just want to say congratulations on your new HQ16 and I'm sure you'll have hours of fun.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I finished my first quilt yesterday doing a simple meander. Fortunately it's a very busy scrappy quilt so all my mistakes won't show. I quilted in quadrants as suggested by Joe's mom and started and ended just off the outside edges as recommended by MadQuilter - no threads to bury!!!

I have a HQ but not a sitdown model. Please don't blow away the lint at the bobbin area. Use a brush and vacuum. Much safer.