quiltinggrandmaca

Yesterday I went out and bought the Sapphire 875. It sure is going to take some getting use to, but will be a great machine I think. It has a lot more options than my Huskystar224 has, so am really excited about learning it. Hope it is a good machine.

BellaBoo

Congratulations! A new machine in the house is exciting!

Oklahoma Suzie

congrats.

QBeth

I bought the 870 about two years ago; didn't know that another model had come out. Congratulations!

This machine can be intimidating to those of us who sort of "leapt" up to such a fancy machine. I need to go back and take the starter classes again!

Did you notice that the machine doesn't have a lever (behind the needle) to raise and lower the foot? For me, it's been really hard to get used to. I find it difficult to accurately line up the fabric the first time; i.e., I'm used to raising the foot a bit and squigging the fabric to where I want it. For that reason, I use my Baby Lock for piecing and the Sapphire for FMQ. It's great for that!!

A couple of people suggested buying the throat plate (is that what it's called?) marked in inches (the machine comes with metric marking). Unfortunately that didn't help. What did help, after some fussing with the problem, is to use the needle and hand wheel to place the fabric before hitting the pedal to lower the foot.

If I didn't have my Baby Lock as an alternative, I might be better at using the Sapphire by now. As they say, practice makes perfect.

Hope you enjoy your machine. It really is a nice one and has lots of coooool features!

katier825

Congrats! I bought the Sapphire 830 about 6 months ago and love it. One thing to pay attention to is that the presser foot can come up to a couple of positions. Be sure you have it all the way up when you are trying to pull the thread thru or it won't go anywhere! Oh, and I'm still reaching for the presser foot lever! :)

QBeth

I'm afraid I'm just one broken knuckle away from pulling my hair out! :lol:

Just joking. Nothing broken, yet. I may get more practice this weekend. -- my Baby Lock is busted. Boo hoo! That's my "go to" machine.

quiltinggrandmaca

I just spent the last hour working with it and I love, love, love it.
I love the needle up-needle down option, I love the fix at the start option, I love the thread cutting option. I haven't found anything yet that I don't like.
I too have reached for the lever to put the foot down. That might take a little bit of getting use to, especially going back and forth to a conventional machine, but that's okay.

Jim's Gem

Congratulations!! I hope you have a great time with your new machine!

quiltinggrandmaca

I tried to do some fmq and had a devil of a time with my bobbin thread. I even broke a needle. It would just bunch up on the bottom. I phoned to the place that sold me the machine and he told me to rethread the top and voila, end of problem. Who would have known that rethreading the top would fix the bobbin. He said that the thread likely popped out of the take up arm and I guess he knew what he was talking about. If it ever happens again, at least I will know how to fix it.

MollieSue

Congratulations on the new machine!!!! :) :) :)