I'm with you about the rulers. But I'm also not a feather person. Sometimes when I'm piecing a quilt, the quilting design(s) pop into my head. But I often get ready to do the quilting and "wing it" or revert to my normal spirals or woodgrain. I do agree, though, that fantastic quilting can really elevate a ho-hum quilt. The quilting design becomes more important to me if I've used solids or there's a large amount of negative space.