retrogirl, if you're planning on stitching in the ditch to quilt your quilt then the walking foot is the way to go. the walking foot has little grippers on the bottom of it so therefore it helps to pull the material thru at the same pace as does the feed dog on the bottom piece of fabric. but if you're going to stipple or do meandering to quilt it, then you drop the feed dog and use a meandering foot or stippling foot as it is called. you probably already know all of that though. they even make a 1/4" walking foot too and i sure do like that, also a stitch in the ditch walking foot. high tech thinks of everything.