Kwiltr

I bought my Sweet Sixteen Sitdown machine in 2013...I actually thought it was longer ago than that, but I went back and checked my previous picture posts and that is when I started machine quilting. I was a hand quilter prior to. Late October this year I took delivery of my Lenni Longarm, so I am brand new to Longarm quilting as of about a month ago. I learned to use rulers on my Sitdown machine which has no stitch regulator and of course involves moving the sandwich not the machine. It's harder to use a ruler on a Sitdown machine, but doable. You need to control your speed with rulers obviously and start slowly. You don't indicate what type of machine you're quilting with. On probably most long arms the track system wants to move side to side horizontally and forward and back vertically, and so doing a straight grid, like in the bottom of my posted quilt, is working with the machine's natural tendancy to follow the path of least resistance. So if you have a Longarm set up and just gently let it roll in those directions, you might find that it will maintain a straight path. It doesn't work for travel on the diagonal, like the 45° grid that I did on the top of the quilt. If you want a consistent outcome and little to no wobbles, you really need to use a ruler to do great straight lines. But, if you are ok with a bit of imperfection, like in my grid, then doing it without a ruler is liberating and quicker.

My Lenni has stitch regulation, which is a real treat for me and between that and moving the machine against the ruler versus the whole quilt and ruler simultaneously, there is no comparison! Also, sadly, there is no substitute for practice on any machine ! . Hope that answers your question. Sorry, it's a little long winded!

P.S. I always mark my lines prior to stitching, even with a ruler, as its the only way I can get them to end up where I want them with certainty!