This is a machine I used for everything until last March when I bought a new Brother. Bought it new from Sears about 25 years ago and still runs fairly well. I never used the plate covering the feed dogs as it moved around too much. If you open the left cover where the thread is the large dial on the side should say DARN. That is all I did to FMQ and it seems to work pretty good. Watch the dial on the lower right for stitch length (6, 8, 12 etc.) Mine seems to move back to 6 as I'm sewing.