I'm new to longarm quilting, and am always looking for ways to improve my quilting. I've found that when I slow down my stitching improves. I just purchased Deborah Poole's book "You can quilt it", and one of her recommendations (besides slowing down) is to put some weight on the throat plate (I don't quite understand how to do that), or lower the take-up bar to rest on the throat plate. I plan to try doing this on my next quilt.