you can replicate designs in the quilt for quilting designs- such as doing flowers, leaves, stars, along with your meandering- stipple backgrounds- if the quilt is all straight lines- curvy quilting is nice
it is totally up to you if you want to do individual blocks-with starts & stops- or if you want to do an edge to edge all over with out starts-stops-
either way is fine-and a personal choice.
echo quilting is also a good option when free-handing
spend some time looking through books of quilts- really look at the quilting- years ago there was no such thing as groovy boards- or statler stitchers-
the more you look at other quilting the more you will (see) what will look great on your quilts.
many of us free hand everything-
it just takes some practice- and being (adventurous)