Free motion quilting question

When I searched for a recent post on free motion quilting I couldn't find any so I'll start anew for others who may be interested.

I'd like to try free motion quilting but I need to know if it's me or my machine. I have a Viking #1+, a darning foot and a nice chunk of time. I put together my practice quilt sandwich, switched out the foot, dropped the feed dogs and played around with the tension but there's no way I could get the gliding motion I see when I watch youtube videos of free motion quilting! Mine is herky-jerky and the machine just doesn't seem to be doing a thing to help me out. It felt like I was struggling to get the fabric to move at all and then when it did of course I had erratic stitching.

I've seen where embroidery machines aren't recommended for FMQ but then I've also seen that any machine will work.

I already have sooooo many machines (2 #1's, industrial straight-stitch, industrial blind-hemmer, serger and Janome embroidery). Do I really need a "quilting" machine to do this properly?

I'm off to the sewing machine store to test drive their machines to see if any of them work better than mine for this but today I'll only test the machines until I hear your suggestions.

Thanks so much,

Ellen
http://nouveaustitch.com

Okay, after a day of experimenting with a new machine I was more determined than ever to make my old machine work with FMQ and I did! I went back to the manual and happened to notice something about adjusting the pressure foot pressure. I then noticed in the manual a symbol marked on the pressure foot pressure knob which was exactly for using with the darning foot and voila! It worked like a champ! I just saved myself over $200 by sticking with it and not buying a new machine!!! If only sewing machine manuals were more helpful I could have saved a lot of time and energy. Live and learn!

http://nouveaustitch.com