On this note - it is REALLY helpful if you have an open toe foot or a darning foot that is shaped like a small metal ring. They allow you the most visibility and help you see where you are going! I also will literally stop in a needle down position if I have lost track of where I'm going or am supposed to go. Better than heading off in a direction you didn't intend!

That is what I think of too...I like to have relaxing music on while I quilt...seems to help me with the "flow"...and if you want something just a step up from meandering/stippling...most of the time I do stipple with loops, or with hearts or stars...I think that is even more fun.

This is some of the stippling I have done on my Singer Featherweight. What I have in mind when I am doing FMQ stippling is thinking about puzzle pieces. It works for me.

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I'm in the process of doing the "quilt as you go" method Leah Day does. I've basted about four squares together and hopefully it will turn out!

The "pure" definitation of stippling and meandering is in the size. Meandering is the larger shapes as shown in most of the examples above. Stippling is the same shapes but much much smaller shapes very packed together.
Many quilters will get a meandering stencil and mark a few times to get the rhythm of the design until it comes naturally to them. Meandering should give the impresson of no specific design but an all over coverage of the quilting
To some the motion comes easy, to others (like me) it is amost like trying to rub your head while rubbing your stomach. I find in class that many students try to create a specific pattern - such as frame but the designs hould move across the surface with no distinct pattern created but just to see an all over background fill.
One problem most have is "backing themselves into a corner" with no place to go especially in triangle areas. there is a good illustration of meandering in triangle areas in the book "Trapunto By Machine" by Hari Walner

LOL! I talk to myself mentally. Does that count?

I tell my quilters to imagine drawing puzzle pieces. Some of them have their own ideas and one imagines drawing dog bones and another draws gingerbread men!! Just relax and keep your curves curvy and it will all be ok especially when washed!

My son, who does my LA quilting on a Gammill, refers to his stippling as "jig saw puzzle pieces" and he can go from teeny tiny to bigger, whatever I have in mind for the quilting. I have several sheets of patterns, but we both still prefer the "free hand" or "stippling" patterns. My sister, who comes over to do her own quilting on my big machine, prefers "free hand" too, but she likes to add circles into her patterns. My son is left-handed, so he says he can't work the circles into his designs. He is just lazy, I tell him......

my own stippling looks "eh, ok" on the top. several times tho I have had to pick out ALOT of it due to birdsnest thing on the bottom. now I'm afraid to do it at all. so I have 4 tops done for the kids that I am too afraid to do. If I had any money they would be at a longarmer's home right now. I am going to try on some mugrugs next week and see if I can't get it right. Is this a problem with tension? Nice examples of your work have been posted and I look forward to tips. pretty please

just found a thread addressing this very problem-tension and fmq. I will check there for help