Thank you guys so much. I did not even start this thread but have really learned something here. I did not understand about walking foot either apparently.:eek:

I will echo PaperPrincess and Peckish's posts...

Well, there are as many answers as there are quilters. I use my walking foot for any quilting that I do. I haven't been successful doing the free motion quilting (which uses the darning foot). To do curves, I just go slowly and turn my work as needed. You should try using different ways and decide which one gives you the desired results. There are no hard and fast rules. Besides, quilters are known for breaking the rules! Good luck and have fun!!

There are also different feet available for FMQ. Janome's quilting foot does not hop and you do want it to rest slightly on the fabric. I like it much better than the hopping version.

would never sew on binding without my walking foot also machine quilting straight line.

As others have stated a walking foot moves the fabric evenly as you sew. It is really helpful when SID and putting on binding. In theory it can be used for requlat stitching but it does not work that well. I have done gentle curves and outlining with the walking foot It really seemed easier to do gental curves than using FMQ foot since yiou have more control over the movement. A FMQ foot is used to do feathers, fancy FMQ, stippling, meandering. Since it is "free" and there is no tension on the fabric and the feed dogs are usually dropped it allows the quilter to move the fabric and makes the quilting pattern "free". All that said, I use my regular sewing foot instead of the walking foot. I can sew faster and easier with my regular foot.(not 1/4" foot) also I am able to raise the presser foot tension so I have no puckering. I would suggest you get both walking and FMQ foot since each serves its own purpose.