My newest Janome has two plates. They click on and off. Great idea for keeping the lint at bay, you can clean out under the plate often. My last machine had a plate with changable holes, which were sometimes problamatic because they didn't change correctly or completely. I love the round needle plate on this new machine because the fabric never gets stuck down the big hole. I haven't had a lot of free motion experience with it ( make that NONE), but I think you will love it for piecing, and hopefully for FMQing also.