rryder

I do a combination. I use rulers, particularly a straight ruler and a couple of curves when I'm doing straight lines, or curves in an area that would benefit from more precision and no wobbles. Esp. doing diagonals, and any kind of long curve. I have a couple of specialty rulers as well, but don't use them nearly as often as the straight and curves. I can't say I prefer either ruler or freehand quilting- just depends on what I want to do on my quilt. I tend to use rulers mainly to break up spaces on a quilt that has a lot of negative space, or to be more accurate when stitching in the ditch and then freehand everything else. But it really depends on what the quilt is telling me it needs.

A lot of my favorite quilters do a mix. Take a look at work by Lisa Calle, Bethanne Nemish, and Angela Walters for some examples.

Rob