Sue, congratulations on your new Sweet Sixteen! I changed my closed toe foot for an open toe foot- not as easy as with my DSM at all! I've kept the foot on because I do like the visibility with the open toe foot. As for rulers, I'm still working out how best to use rulers with this machine.

I've had my machine since May of last year, i love quilting on it. I hope you enjoy yours to the max!
Kathy

Didn't have much trouble changing my foot, but harder than domestic machine. There is some adjustment available in the height of the foot and I have used this a time or two when doing trapunto type quilting.

thank you both so much. You have eased my mind. The dealer seemed to think that the flat front of the open toed interfered with the ruler. Then I looked at the directions for changing the foot and thought that changing is not like changing a Bernina foot!
Can't wait....

I use them all the time with mine. Visual is so much better with open toe. You won't regret!

I have used rulers w e open toe foot w no problem. The foot is a bit too cumbersome (for me) to change back and forth.

Congrats on your new machine.

My HQ Sweet Sixteen Sit-down is on order. I have a question for you pros. I ordered it so the open toe foot will be installed. I'm having second thoughts because of ruler use. Have any of you changed a foot yourself? It looks a bit complicated. Do you use the various rulers with the sit-down?
All advice appreciated!

I watched Phillipa Naylor at Quilt Festival the year she won the big award (don't remember the name of it) and she stitched at what I now think would be a 15 or 20 on the HQ. she was using a domestic machine at that demo. And her discussion was that she has to really harp, harp, harp, to get her students to slow down. That they THINK they have to run at full speed and she is in total disagreement.

So, in contrast to what we 'think' of the top quilters doing, I think many of them quilt slowly.........now for large feathers, etc. I don't know as so far I haven't done them.

Lynn

Jo Jo - I am also on the envy list. Would love a class from David but it would surely take some travel for me and that's not going to happen soon. Keep us posted about your experience.

I don't know David but I did get to meet him in 2009 and sit and stitch next to him at the first HQ My Story event. I was really struck at the pace of his stitching. I have played on the Avante and was really blown away at how fast the machine stitches. I think that made me feel like I wasn't "keeping up" as I was getting to know my machine. Watching David showed me that I CAN slow down to a pace that's comfortable for me. When following a marked pattern, I often set my stitch speed to 20, which seems really slow but it is a pace where I can keep control. Large areas of stippling might get a higher speed of 25 - 28. Saving your favorite stitch speeds (up to 3) is an option new to the Sw16.

Also, you would really love to have the horizontal thread spool for lighter weight threads....and the new open toe foot. It really helped with visibility.

Here is the link to the yahoo group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HQ_Sit_down_Model/



kim

JO Jo

I'm so excited that I got in to David's organic quilting class. He will be in Oregon during October for the MQX show.

Thanks, all. Just found out I'll need different needles, bobbins, and I already ordered the open-toe foot. I joined the yahoo group. Sticking with my Bernina 440 for piecing, with it's narrower feet. Every time I think I "have it all", something new comes out!! And David? I wanna pinch his cheeks!!

oh, i'm also a slow quilter. keep it set between 20 and 30!

Lucky you, Lynn. I also subscribe to QNN. David is featured in a series of the Quilt It programs. A lot of good info there! I was glad to see that he quilts my speed--SLOW. I would love to get to take a class from him.

David (although I don't PERSONALLY know him) is such a stand up guy and such a sweetheart. I watched him and talked to him at Houston Quilt Festival a couple of years ago while he was on the HQ - actually it was the year I bought mine. I got one of the demos that year. I loved that short piece TQS did on a visit to his home recently. You get a real feel for the artist!