the difference between stippling and meandering is---stippling no line crosses or touches---meandering means you 'meander' all sometimes stars, flowers, hearts, what ever- butterflies---what ever you want to meander across your quilt- the lines often touch and cross. back when quilting was predominantly done by hand people did not want their stitches to cross- (stippling) because the thread might (with friction) break with wear & tear- it is not as much of an issue now days with better quality threads and more machine quilting being done- now it's more of a design decision- if you want to meander you can (draw-doodle) anything you want meandering across your quilt----stippling is making the puzzle like designs without your lines crossing- if you enter a show and state you stippled the quilt the judges will check to see if you crossed lines---if you meander it crossing lines is perfectly ok.