I have just acquired a Singer 201 and it is one gorgeous machine. It sew beautiful stitches and is so very quiet. Now, my problem is in STD Quilting. I went on line to purchase a walking foot for this older machine. The walking foot is made for the single stitch machine in that the walking foot is narrower than on other machines to align itself properly with the feed dogs of the single stitch Singer 201. It does fine when making the first STD lines of Quilting but when it is time to turn the quilt and go the other direction, it seems that the walking foot doesn't feed quite as well and I usually wind up with very tiny tucks between the blocks. I was wondering if any of you who have done STD quilting on the Singer 201 have the same problem. I can't figure out why it does so well on all rows going one way but has this slight problem when going the other direction. I dearly love this machine for the big harp that gives you plenty of room for a larger quilt. I presently am only doing lap throws for the local nursing homes but I would love to make a regular or queen size quilt for our bed. I have read in the posts that this is an excellent machine for FMQ but I just prefer to have a little more puffiness in my quilts and besides I am just no good at FMQ.

I think you will find that if you spray starch both top and backing heavily, this will eliminate the little tucks. The problem is probably not with the walking foot, but rather with the fabric stretching a tiny bit with the sewing. Starching will stabilize the fabric so it doesn't stretch.

My preference is to starch before creating the quilt sandwich. I use spray starch on the top and a 1:1 solution of Sta-Flo liquid laundry starch and water on the backing fabric. I saturate the backing fabric with the starch solution (using a large wall painting brush to apply), toss in dryer, then iron with steam.

If you already have the quilt sandwich basted, spray starching both top and backing will still help prevent tuckers.