You can straight sew without a walking foot. I don't use one because I haven't taken the time to attach it to my machine. Some say they love it for keeping the layers of fabric even. The darning foot is used for free motion quilting (regular machine quilting/stipppling). IMHO you will need the darning foot if you aren't doing stitch in the ditch quilting. You can get both kinds of feet for older machines. Have fun!!