Also the placement of the light in your machine can make a difference. My 25+yo machine throws a little line of shadow just to the right of the foot. I guess when it was manufactured they never thought it would make any difference. And if you were sewing clothes or anything else with a wider seam and more tolerance for tiny errors, it wouldn't. I see that some of the newer machines designed for quilters have an LED light bar. When you have an auxiliary light to eliminate the shadow, you get much better results.