Finally. This is the first time I’ve plugged in my new Sunshine 16 that I purchased in Houston at Festival. It isn’t that I don’t have pieces to quilt…I do.  They are laying on the trundle bed in the background.  I didn’t feel there was a big  learning curve with this machine since I’ve been doing free motion quilting on a home machine for over 15 years. But…as much as I hated to take the time I thought I should do some more test driving. 

Taking a cue from David Taylor  who I watched using the Sweet 16 ( the Sunshine 16 competitor) on Utube and at Festival, I simply stacked a backing, batting and top together without basting…this is only for something small that won’t be scrunched around and I was anxious to get stitching.

You can see in the next photo it is really easy peasy. I can’t say that I had any tension issues . The learning curve is finding the speed that is right . 

 I had a couple of thread breaks at super high speeds but I didn’t really match my top and bobbin threads since this was practice.  I didn’t get any bird nests on the backside, so that’s good.  I found a speed that worked well for me, not too fast, not too slow but just right. I could practice more but I don’t think I want to take the time. 

Since the pieces I have to do involve a LOT of thread sketching and heavy quilting, I think I will just get to it. There are miles of thread to go before I’m done with them.

So far I have this machine sitting on top of my Koala cutting table.  There isn’t a frame with the one I bought but they have a frame it will fit onto if that floats your boat. With the portable table you can see in the photos it is just the right height for standing to quilt. I can sit on a stool if I need to take a break, too. I bought a new cushy rubber mat at the home store. Each of these little bubbles squishes when you step on it. It feels wonderful and is a great surface to stand on without fatigue.