I scrunch also,

I go rent a long arm to quilt my own large quilts on. I had to pay for the class on how to use the long arm machine. So now for an hourly fee and thread fee I get my quilts done for a fraction of the cost to have someone else quilt them. For the smaller quilts I quilt on my Janome 6600.

no,don't require one.

Rexie,

If you have a really older model Singer, you can find cover plates for the feed dogs. They are making them for FW's and 301's and lots of other models. Have seen them in parts sections on Ebay.

I don't know about what I call the "newer" machines. hope this helps.

I have a Brother 1500S that I use for machine quilting...has more room for a quilt than a normal sewing machine..would love to have something larger, but budget doesn't allow. I can quilt up to a double fairly comfortably. Queen size would be difficult, and king size I don't think I would attempt on my own.