Hopping foot? Never heard of it but u learn something new every day! I must look into this and get one, I love my 301's as well as my Featherweights!

most perfect stitch with most visible needle placement due to the slant needle.... quilted my Bonnie Hunter 'Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt' on my 301A.[ATTACH=CONFIG]520757[/ATTACH]

yes...it is not full size of the mystery...about 1/3 of the blocks made the size I needed. oh, and the foot I used came from sew classic... free motion foot for 301 slant needle.

Do you have a photo of the foot? I love my 301 but haven't tried to fee motion with it yet. Now I'm getting excited!

Your "Grand Illusion" quilt is lovely. Mine is still a flimsy! What am I doing? I have the machine, the table, the backing..I had better get busy!

Thank you Thayer Rags!! I just searched Sew Classic and the foot you recommended is sold out. I'll search Ebay and check with Sew Classic again later this week.

I have the Sew Classic foot for my 500A and it works well! I love that machine... I haven't used a 301 yet but seems like all of the slant-shank models are well loved.

I have a 301a and I just ordered the hopping for it from sew classic . I intend to put mine on my original little gracie frame when I get it all put together. I had already found a slant shank walking foot for it, before I even had the machine. I picked it up at a yard sale. I just couldn't leave an older singer walking foot there, even if I didn't have a machine for it. 😃
I also saw a video of a woman using her regular pressing foot to do free motion on her 301. She was just zipping right along. I don't know if I would feel comfortable doing that.

Correction to my last post...I bought my hopping foot from Sewing machines plus. Just in case someone wanted to order one. ����

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).

I ordered the hopping foot off of eBay, with shipping it was $14.50. I will try it when it arrives but most likely I will have my DH shave off the front of the foot for a better view of where I am going. Like you Archaic, I tend to see the plastic as a solid too.