It's true that you don't free-motion quilt those little bumpy circles that are so popular right now with your walking foot, but you can (with my Janome, anyway) do a lot of outlining and even make patterns when quilting. I do a lot of corners and circles with my walking foot.
An open faced "darning" foot is what you want for total small movement freedom. And, if you find that you are having a problem with the free motion quilting, put your feed dogs back UP. I saw this suggestion, probably here on QB some years back, and it works for me and my machine. Having them up gives me more control when free motion quilting with small foot.