About the needle threader .... I have a Bernina 153 QE so I don't know if it works like yours but I had to do some finagling with mine after I used it for a bit. It has a little wire thingy that is what goes through the eye of the needle to thread it. Mine was just slightly off to one side so it would not go through the needle eye but next to it instead. I got my glasses on and a flashlight and watched what it did when I tried to work it. I was able to push/bend the wire thingy over the other way a bit so that it lined up properly again. Worth a try maybe???