I know this is a dumb question BUt.......
 

What is the difference between meandering and stippling? Is the stippling just a small meander?

Yes, that is the way I understand it from my reading.

That is how I understand it too. Both of them are not supposed to cross over themselves, but then again, there are no quilt police!!

According to Linda Taylor, stippling lines are no more than 1/4" apart. Meandering is larger, looser. http://www.quiltingnow.com/Magazines...07-taylor.html

However, other quilting experts say that meandering is still a stipple, just a bigger one.

A rose by any other name...

Stippling is any microquilting design that is densely spaced and adds texture. It is not necessarily a meander type pattern. http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltin...lequilting.htm

Over time the two terms somehow became synonomous but stippling is really very different from meander.

Stippling is commonly associated with handquilting, usually wholecloth welsh type designs. Here is a link to a prime example of stippling posted by Andrea (Borntohandquilt). Note the second picture in the below link. In the very center medallion, where the diamond points meet... The dense background quilting that seems to have no distinct patter but makes those diamonds just pop up off the surface of the quilt, that is stippling. http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...t-t177631.html

Here is another AMAZING example of Andrea's hand stippling (scroll to the middle of the first page to see the picture she posted)
http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...g-t158538.html

In machine and LAQ it can be any very dense background design but most commonly used is a very small micro meander, most likely because it is easy to do as a continuous quilting line which is probably how the two terms got innappropriately interchanged. Here is another great blog that visually shows the difference with a picture
http://www.quilting-tidbits.com/mach...g-designs.html

Thanks for all the great answers and links!! this has really helped!