IMHO the quilting design
can be just as important as the piecing design. There are so many considerations that can and do have impact on how I quilt something. For utility quilts an E2E or all over design that ignores the piecing and the blocks is perfectly appropriate, especially in quilts that make a very strong visual impact before any quilting or have utilized such busy fabrics no fancy quilting will show anyway. Also time is a valuable consideration so if I am making a quilt with a tight deadline I will choose a panto for the quilting or a freehand design I know I can execute fairly quickly and won't require marking (or very little marking). This quilt is a good example of that (with a bit of a theme thrown in) :
Scrappy batik HST quilt
For quilts destined to be in a show or are extra special or just because you want to show off a little then custom quilting is very important. I have found my niche to be theme quilting. Sometimes the theme is in the fabric selections used or the end recipient. For example, I currently have a quilt on my rack (for a customer) that is going to be gifted to a Buddhist teacher. The fabrics are all Asian prints, fussy cut circles appliqued onto squares. I have chosen quilting design elements that are meaningful in buddhism so I am doing Lotus flowers and Dharma wheels and the borders are being quilted with a gingko leaf motif to tie into all the different Asian print fabrics, while filling up the space in a visually pleasing way that adds to the quilts piecing.
For my own quilts, I often consider what kind of quilting I want to do before I even start piecing. This often involves doing a lot of research on the net for appropriate ideas and doing sketches of what would look good in the negative space of the quilt. I have even come up with the idea for the quilting first and built a quilt around it, like this one:
"East Meets Midwest" an Asian scrappy quilt
Sometimes I have to stand and stare at a quilt for a while before an idea comes to me. Other times the instant I see the quilt (or a picture of it) ideas pop into my head and I run with them. Other times I will see a picture on pinterest of something with a motif I really love and want to somehow incorporate it, or something like it into the quilt. That single motif can spark a fire of ideas or create a theme I want to run with for the rest of the quilt. That was how I approached this quilt:
https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...c-t289353.html
I don't have robotics on my machine so it is all hand guided or ruler work for me. Luckily I enjoy ruler work but you are right it is very time consuming. But I don't find it tedious or boring. Doing pantos I do find to be boring but often it is quick and it is easy and often it is the perfect quilting choice for many quilts.
Even when I hand quilted I usually found a theme for the quilt top for my quilting designs.