By George, I Think I've Got It!

After pulling my hair out trying to get end-to-end quilting to work on the Bernina Q-Matic, I finally caught on!

The YouTube video I found online was somewhat helpful.  It shows two ways of realigning the "safe area" - which you have to do after advancing the quilt on the frame.  The method "Reposition on Screen" is pretty straight forward, but has the disadvantage that it's too easy to accidentally shift the area to the left or right while pulling downward - and thereby throwing off the design.  "Snap to Point" pretty much allows you to avoid that problem - but the video doesn't show the head being moved into position.  Instead, it just shows the computer screen the whole time - and I found it confusing.

I also looked in the printed manual that came with the Q-Matic.  Yup - there's written instructions in there on how to do it - but oh, my... the way the pages are laid out on that book (with wierd uses of indentation and bullet points)... VERY difficult to read and make sense out of.

For me, the breakthrough came when I used the "how-to" instructions that are recorded inside the computer itself.  Once I selected "Realign Safe Area", I noticed there's a blue circle with a question mark at the bottom/center of the screen.  When I selected that circle, a small dropdown window appears with written instructions for both the "...on Screen" and "...on Point" methods.  And guess what?!?!   The instructions are actually fairly clear!

What a relief! 

So OK - I'm off and running now.  I've got several quilt tops that are ready to go - and will be powering through my backlog of work in no time!