A comment was made on another post that freemotion quilting means quilting without stencils, without patterns, without drawing on the quilt. I do longarming (new at it). I mentioned on a longarm forum that I was doing freestyling on a quilt - drawing the design on the quilt and going at it -- without a computer. They informed me that I was freemotioning. Now someone says that it's not.

Okay - you all tell me -- what is YOUR description of freemotion quilting?

To me, it means without a computer and using a FMQ foot.

People can be "word nerds". Feed dogs down, FMQ foot and doing the quilting by yourself, not a computerized design.

I don't know the answer. I am still trying to get up the nerve to try FMQ. I have been practicing and getting a bit better. I have a question for you. Do you find it helpful to draw on the fabric? I have just been doing meandering patterns, which I like. I really don't want my stitching to be too close together, and I'm having a problem not meandering back too close to where I was. Thanks for the help!

means when you are controlling the direction of the stitching and the length of the stitch. Dropping the feed dogs and you are in control.

"Free-motion" just means that the line of sewing isn't "machine guided."

You're not letting the feed dogs drive the fabric - you're deciding where you're going. :)

there are stencils for meandering. folks say it helps to draw the design on the quilt even in meandering until you get the rythm of the pattern.

This is something I have been wonder about too. Can I use a stencil and free motion quilt it or are they just for long-armers? I am struggling to attempt much on my own.

my opinion..... freemotion/freestyle would be like drawing with the machine, no templates or drawn design, (which I can NOT do!)

a stencil is just a pattern to trace a design onto your fabric and yes you can use one, a template is a design that you follow around with the machine and I don't see how you could do that with a regular machine, I think it would just be too hard.