What is the difference between stippling, meandering and free motion??

Free motion is sewing a design on a quilt without a pattern. Stippling is tiny meandering that looks like puzzle pieces and meandering is just puzzle pieces that are larger in size. Both meandering and stippling are designs that are free motion quilted.

with a stipple- no line touches or crosses-
with meandering you can have loop-d-loops, stars, flowers, (meandering) across the quilt
free-motion- -- any hand guided- design without pattersn/marking

Free motion is how you quilt - feed dogs down and disengaged.
Free motion can be the meandering or stippling or it can be a specific pattern which has either been done "free hand" or most likely marked.
Meandering and Stippling is the pattern.....Free Motion is the process of quilting

Very well said!

I agree.

IMHO stippling is a random pattern close together, meandering is a a random pattern on a larger scale, you can cross lines with either, and free motion is quilting with the feed dogs down, and not computer guided. But as you can see, there are different definitions for these terms, depending on who you ask.

I have some stencils for stippling and meandering and the lines don't cross. I'm not saying that I have never "crossed the line" or that this is a firm rule, because we quilters do what pleases us, but, just sharing that bit of info.

Years and years ago I was told to "not cross the line" when FM quilting. But I don't think theres any rules anymore is there? Go with the flo!