This May Be A Stupid Question, But...
 

OK...so if a free-motion sewing machine foot doesn't even touch the fabric, why use a foot at all? Exactly what does the foot do? Do you really HAVE to pay the high bucks to get a darning/quilting foot? Would it harm the machine to just lower the feed dogs and remove the foot? What am I missing here?

Donna

Right off the top of my head the primary reason might be for safety. If I'm free motion quilting, it would be easy to stab my finger if I didn't have that tiny bit of metal or plastic to remind me where my limits were.

My longarm has a big hopping foot and one time a few months ago, the edge of my pinky finger got caught under the needle - ouuuuch!

I think it holds the fabric down close to the plate even though it doesn't press it down like a regular presser foot. Without it the fabric would pop up higher and you'd have a mess. And you might run over your fingers.
But you could try it and let us know what happens :-)

Yep, that's been my experience as well, it keep the sandwich from flopping up and down so much. :)

Older machines often just said to remove the presser foot to embroider....FMQ was not a common form of machine quilting then. I've not tried it without the hopping foot, but have thought about it.
That being said, you can get a darning/quilting foot at Hancock's or Joanne's for about $12...

I did try this once. Besides the fact that it is pretty scary with that bare needle, when the needle raises up it pulls your fabric up. You end up having to hold the fabric down while you are still trying to move it around. It really wasn't pretty.

For FMQ, most quilters use a "hopping" foot that has a spring in it. The foot holds the fabric down while the stitch is being formed, but hops back up in-between stitches so you can move the quilt. There is another type of FMQ foot that doesn't hop, but I've never used that one. As others have said, that one keeps a minimal amount of continual pressure on the sandwich to stop it from popping up when the needle moves up. These feet are usually not expensive at all. Most sewing machines have either a short shank or long shank, and a generic darning foot of the correct shank type is all that is needed.

Oh, and it's not a stupid question at all! The only stupid question is the one that doesn't get asked. :)

I don't know but, I'm sure there is a very good reason for it. I just follow directions.

A big messy thread blob... Not pretty.. :eek:

My two newer machines don't sew well without a foot, my older one does well without. However, sewing without a foot is very intimidating as there isn't anything at all to protect your fingers/hands.
I have done this for some decorative type stitching, but wouldn't for FMQ as you are moving the quilt sandwich around a lot and so much faster for that. :) :) :)