I just want some advice.....
 

I am not new to quilting, but still learning the many techniques. Up until January 1, I made small quilts and use the tieing method with yarn through the layers of the quilts. Well I watched a you tube video on stippling from Missouri quilting company, and tried it myself. It turned out better than I thought. I took the advice, that the person on the receiving end will not see your mistakes, and yes there were mistakes.

Here is my question, What do you use as templates for your Machine quilting. I am new to the Machine quilting and I want practice. Do you use powdered chalk and precut templates, or is it free hand? I have noticed the real pretty curves and leaves patterns in many of your quilts. I have only tried the stippling and the straight lines using the quilting guide? Any advice would be helpful.

I love this quilt board because many of you have wonderful advice and do really great work.

Ok, i will quit rambling now. Thanks

It depends what I want to do. For intricate designs, I mark with template and chalk, or a pencil. But if you are doing something that mirrors the block design, sometimes you can use that as a guide and don't need a template. There are lots of freehand options that build on the stippling - hearts, leaves, circles, etc. intermixed into the stipple where ever you want. That's usually done freehand. And then there's things like http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.ca/ where it's all done freehand and very dense quilting. I prefer lighter quilting, so I stick with what I said above.

I only do freehand quilting although sometimes I keep a diagram of the design I am trying to achieve next to me so I can sort of keep my eyes on it as I go. I don't do it very well yet, but they say with practice it will get better.

I have started to do almost all FMQ freehand but will occasionally mark with a blue water soluable marker. The best thing I bought was a dry erase board and can sit for hours just doodling designs with a dry erase marker, wiping it off, and start again. I have a few plastic templates but have hardly used them because I hate to take the time to mark. I also bought a roll of Golden Thread paper which looks promising.

Although I am not super experienced, I do mostly freehand FMQ. I have a fine chaco liner and a disappearing blue pen I use if I want to get something in a particular spot. I sit like sandrab64 described and just doodle beforehand. I have also purchased a pounce but have not gotten the hang of it.

As with many things, practice will improve your skills over time. Master the stippling etc them try a simple design and keep stretching yourself to try bigger and more complex designs.

I recently graduated from stitch in the ditch to meandering FMQ and not only am I enjoying it, but even from the first quilt I did it turned out much better than expected because of the confidence I gained from reading this board. Like you, I want to do the feathers and beautiful patterns on the borders and don't yet have the skill or confidence, but I found a product called Borders Made Easy. It's a long roll of paper with adhesive backing that you stick onto the quilt and just sew right over the pattern and then rip off the paper. There are various designs to choose from and they're quite easy to do.

There are lots of methods, I say try a few and see what works for you, you can use pounce, golden threads paper, frixion pens, generals chalk pencils, They have special pencils and pens on the market, just test on scraps before using it on the real quilt. I would just buy cheap muslin and batting and make practice squares, and try different methods and see what you like best, also some work better for different fabrics, like pounce is not the best for really light quilts, and the frixion pens are not the best for really dark quilts

I just do meandering or large stipple. I don't try any designs, I like doing the FMQ and like the looks.