I have the QE 4.0. If you do not have the needle down selected, it will stop with the needle up and the foot down. There is also a foot to use for free motion quilting. In the manual on page 2.9 there are instructions to lower the feed dogs--slide the button on the lower front of the machine to the left. I love this machine and use it every day for sewing, piecing, etc. I'm not good at free motion quilting and have a mid-arm quilting machine so I don't use it for that. I do love the IDT on the Pfaff machines.