Originally Posted by
lisadozsew
Thank you all for the great replies! You have certainly given me food for thought. I do want to learn to do ruler quilting and want to make sure the machine I end up buying is good at FMQ.
Do make sure the machine has a lever to drop the feed dogs. Some semi-industrial (like certain Juki models) don't have that - you need to switch out to a thicker needle plate that prevents the feed dogs from touching the back of the fabric.
I know some folks leave the feed dogs up, but it's good to have the option should you need it. I prefer feed dogs down.