Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is my first sewing macine, so I can't really compare it to the performance of others, but I feel I can give a pretty good non-technical beginners take on the whole thing. I've never sewn before (save for 8th grade home-etc, which was on a clunky old machine and a terrible experience of constantly fixing the machine and hardly ever sewing). I was interested in learning to quilt but nervous it would be too frustrating to be a fun hobby. I bought this machine with the thought that if I ended up enjoying it, I'd replace it with a nicer machine fairly quickly. The machine sat in the box for just over a year. But once I finally started using it, I seriously couldn't believe how easy and fun it was. I've since made a Jess Brown rag doll, 3 full-queen size quilts, and 4 baby quilts (in a year and a half). I feel like I've already gotten my money's worth! I've considered buying an upgrade but have decided at this point I don't really want to. My machine sews beautifully, is easy to thread, and never gives me any trouble, which is all I could want at this point. I'm not intimidated by it, which is really important to me (kind of sounds silly but that was my fear!) For those complete beginners out there, here are my recommendations: 1. If you have a friend who can sew, have them come over to teach you how to load the bobbin, thread the machine, and adjust the tension (I only had to adjust the tension the first day, and since that it's been fine). Once you can do those things, you're basically good to go. A friend can also help with super obvious things.. like on day one I kept getting an error message because I didn't have the foot down, ha) 2. Only use nice thread, and buy extra bobbins. I use Aurafil thread (I figure I'm making things I'll want to keep forever, so it's worth a few extra dollars), and metal bobbins off amazon (despite other reviews that said not to use metal ones.. they work great for me). 3. Buy extra needles and change the needle after each project. If you don't do that, it will like, skip stitches when I zig zag stitch on the binding, or it looks like it leaves bigger holes. (You can you tube how to to do basically anything, like needle changing, with your machine) 4. Buy a nicer ($5) seam ripper than the tiny one it comes with. (I don't use it often but it's so much better when I do) 5. Be prepared to lay down some money for the things you're going to need. I was kind of surprised at how much I needed to buy in order to quilt. Fabric, rotary cutter, rulers, cutting board, binding clips, adhesive spray, etc. but once you have it all you don't really have to replace very often. 6. You can make an entire quilt (including quilting it), on this machine. For binding, I'd recommend the zig zag stitch, because it holds up so much better and also looks nicer (my first quilt I used a straight stitch, and it doesn't lay as flat). 7. Fabric stores are overwhelming. For my first quilt, I went to one of those trendy/boutique style stores that are a bit more expensive, and bought fabric. It gave me a good idea of what brands are more my style (Cotton and steel, art gallery), and now I can buy from fabric.com or big box stores without getting overwhelmed. I hope this helps someone! The photo is a screenshot from my instagram of the second thing/quilt that I made on this machine.