Hi,
Just finished my first FMQ project...not sure if I am happy. I have found I tend to not want to leave any spot unquilted...so it is very tight. Any advice? Any suggestions as to how big an area to leave unquilted? thanks,
Also I get tired of doing this and then just swirl and sew....have only tried meandering...
Thanks,
Susan

I found stippling boring to do. It seems so monotonous to me. I did a few quilts that way, using a larger stipple. It takes forever for me to do a smaller stipple. I like doing swirls and loops better. I'm dying to try out feathers since I bought the Hooked on Feathers book...hopefully someday soon. I also like to draw a design on Sulky Solvy with washable markers and pin it to the quilt to quilt over it. Once it's done, you trim off the bulk of the extra and the rest washes away in the laundry. I did some pretty quilting that way on the quilt in my avatar.

your batting is the first 'clue' to the density of your quilting...read the package. if you are using warm & natural or one of the dream batts that allow you to have up to 10" between quilting you could with that in mind figure out a design with large stipples, swirls...
if the package says you need to quilt every 2-4" then dense/concentrated quilting is needed.
after you determine the amount of quilting is required then start with paper and pencil and start drawing your design using the spacing required. when you have a design you like that works on your quilt then start again. a plan in advance really helps. and knowing your batting properties is really a necessary tid-bit of information

Some people use Glad wrap Press and Seal to mark the design on and then FM over it. It would be a lot cheaper than Solvy. I am going to give that a try.

Yes, I'm sure it would be cheaper. But for me, I'd get frustrated with it quickly. I am still fairly new to FMQ and often have areas of tiny stitching. To pull the little bits of that out would really take too much of my time. Maybe as I get better, my stitches will become bigger and more consistent and I'll give the Press & Seal a shot.