My favorite hopping/darning foot is the original Singer one. I have the one that was previously pictured from Sew Classic - I find that even though it's clear with markings, my brain sees it as a solid lump of plastic and I feel like I can't see well with it. I also have the Big foot - I don't know if it's a problem with my particular foot or not, but it hangs up on the needlebar clamp when stitching and then the machine starts skipping stitches. I can file it down and I may one day but when I discovered the original foot - 161596 - I found "Nirvana" and didn't go any further with the Big Foot.
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Mike's Girl - How big is the take up bar for your little gracie frame? I think you would prefer a larger throated machine for the frame as the take up will use so much of your throat space right off the bat and when you start to advance your quilt you will run out very fast. It's a very common problem with the 9" throat machines and the 301 has a much smaller throat - under 8" anyway).