purplefiend

I learned to sew on a flat bed machine, wasn't a quilter back then. I didn't have a free arm machine until I bought my Bernina 1031 in 1992. There are some things that cannot be sewn using the free arm, like cuffs and sleeves on baby clothes; they're too tiny.
You need to find a sewing instruction manual from the 1950s and earlier to learn stuff like that.