I am with you sewbizgirl, it happened to me that I quilted a twin quilt for my son and because I mimic water I quilted it really close, well, it is not soft at all. On top of that, I there was a lecture at my guild and the teacher who does long arm quilting explained that in order for a quilt to "look" nice, the quilt has to be even throut the quilt so if you quilt it a lot in one section you might need to continue. But I guess we can always space out as you said.
Just theory because "I know nothing about FMQ"