Originally Posted by Treasureit
This is something I have been wonder about too. Can I use a stencil and free motion quilt it or are they just for long-armers? I am struggling to attempt much on my own.
You can use a stencil or draw the design on with a marker, or draw the design onto Glad Press & Seal and stitch over that - there are lots of ways to mark quilts and lots of ways to quilt them.
Free-motion doesn't mean that you're ad-libbing every step of the way - it just means that the sewing is not machine guided. You're sewing in any direction necessary to complete your design. Whatever you want to do. :)
I can't free-hand draw a circle to save my life, so I make a template for the circle base on which I'll sew feathers. Or I sew the "spine" of a line of feathers and do the "poufs" free-hand.
But, some people are a lot better than I am at following drawn lines, so they can draw their whole pattern and sew it just the way they draw it. I can't even manage to backtrack without going off the line! :)