I've never bothered with a slider. A lot of people swear by them. My old machine has no extension table and my new one does. It's kind of nice to have everything a bit flatter and on the same level, but I did FMQ for a while without the table. The one thing I use all the time is a pair of quilting gloves. They provide a better grip to move the quilt around. They are just cotton gloves with little rubber dots on them. I think they are by Fons and Porter.