mckwilter

My Bernina 440 QE came with the BSR, but I don't use it. My problem was coordinating the speed of the machine with the foot pedal with the speed of moving the fabric with my hands. This is much like playing the organ (hands on keys and feet on pedals) or drums (sticks, high hat and bass drum), and I don't do well with either. I discovered that if I set the variable speed where I am comfortable, I can either unplug the foot pedal and use the on/off button or press the foot pedal all the way down, and the speed doesn't change. Then, all I need to concentrate on is the speed of my hand movements.

ShirlinAZ

I found that doing fmq with feed dogs up helped regulate my stitch length. Of course on my Pfaff I can lower the hopping foot half way down, so I'm sure that made a difference.

kellen46

I cut my teeth on a Bernina stitch regulator. I found though that it was more like training wheels. Once I achieved a good stitch I found I could do it fine with out the regulator. Now I do not have a Bernina, so no regulator. I do well on my Brother Innovis, as we are old friends. However I have a new Viking and was having some bigish problems. I solved it by lowering the foot presser pressure setting, so the fabric slides around easier and disconnecting the foot pedal and using the start stop button instead. Here is why, I don't have to worry about keeping the speed steady. I just set the speed at what I want and know that if I want to stop my thumb can easy reach the button. Perhaps you friend would like to try with the start stop button. After all keeping the speed steady no matter what; is what the stitch regulator mostly does....an of course practice practice, practice. There is nothing like muscle memory to make free motion automatic. Once she gets a decent meander, she can work on following a stencil line and then on to more complex free motion patterns.