My HQ has the ability to stitch in cruise mode which means it will stitch at a specific rate regardless of any motion of the machine.
So if I set the cruise at 50% of top speed, when ever I hit the Start button it's going to sew at that rate until I hit the off button. There are been times I've done just that and moved the fabric because I wanted to do something and did not want to mount it to the frame - but more often it's testing something. I'll use the ruler base but that is not really big enough to do anything larger. BTW- this is what my dealer did to make sure the machine was stitching properly after repair.
I seriously thought about keeping my Bailey as a sit down machine when I got the HQ - but the Bailey is basically a stretched Janome with the feed dogs removed. So it came with the ability to use a foot pedal instead of the handle bar controls. In the end I decided against keeping it and sold it to a friend.