I will definitely consider buying from other than a dealer. As far as free motion quilting, I tried it on my Singer, which I like by the way, and had a terrible time trying to keep the fabric from all of a sudden moving a couple of inches, or even half an inch, thereby causing long stitches. I wasn't using the slippery thing under the fabric though. The other hang-up I have is that I can't imagine having a quilt sized piece to free motion and managing all the bulk while still keeping the feeding of the fabric, therefor the stitch length, even. I have watched Leah Day. :-) She makes it look SO easy! Any other advice about free-motion? I really would love to master it...