Problem has been solved. Yes, I had the right Clear View 1/4" foot. The problem was the needle plate. You see, I bought the floor model 8900 (grey faceplate) from my dealer. Instead of changing everything out, she just swapped out the box from 8900 Special Edition (blue faceplate). There have been a couple of updates including a different single stitch needle plate.
Went back to the dealer this morning and swapped out the needle plate. Put it in my machine and started sewing right away.
Very happy to say that my machine is working like a dream and I completed 18 one block wonder blocks today.
One happy camper!
Thank you everyone.