I do a lot of free motion quilting. I to learned that stippling shouldn't cross over itself, but since I don't put my quilts in shows I don't worry too much about it. Stippling is pretty small, meandering is bigger. For the life of me I can't seem to follow a drawn on quilting pattern. A friend and long arm quilter told me to draw, doodle, scribble whatever you want to call it and that works well. I can do pine cones and pine boughs, write, leaves... This last year I wrote happy holidays continuosly in a border. The trick is practice a little bit everyday and move fast if you go slow it doesn't work. my .02 marieg