I have mostly done meandering, but have stencils for marking the quilt to make a pattern. It takes a lot more work for me at my level of competence to do it that way, but is a goal of mine to make it work. I haven't yet done any markings freehand. To me, FMQ means I will be guiding the quilt, whether meandering or with a marked pattern, with FMQ foot and stitch length set at zero. Feed dogs up or down doesn't seem to affect my outcome.