I have only been FMQ for a year but I love it. What I find works for me when I am trying out FMQ designs on my quilt projects is to lay a large peice of clear vinyl table cloth material over my quilt. I then practice designs on the vinyl using a dry esrase pen. This way I can doodle out designs over a large area of the quilt using the actual size of, for example leaves, that I want to try FMQ on the quilt. It allow me to see how the design looks on my quilt. I buy the vinyl table cloth stuff at my local fabric store for less than $2.00 per yard and it is 60" wide. Just erase when you are done and you can use it over and over again.