I have a Bernina 440QE with the stitch regulator but I find that the darning foot works just as good as the foot. You might try it till you learn to freehand quilt. I learned this 2 weeks ago in a class I was taking. I have tried the stitch regulator and love it as well but my work turns out better with te darning foot if I am going to do free hand work. I just depends on what you are working with and what you want to do. Stippling is realy easy if you are steady at what you do but if your like me and can't seem to control the fabric yet then you might want to try a sinple pattern instead. I was told it takes approx. 1000 hours of pratice to get used to someof these things? Oh well *Iwill do it if I have too....Good luck kid. Practice practice practice