I feel your pain and have given up meandering. Other shapes are much more attractive to me.

I practiced at the beginning & it does help. Then I told one of the ladies at LQS that sometimes I want to do what I want in FMQ even if it means CROSSING LINES. She told me IT'S YOUR QUILT DO WHAT YOU WANT. So I tried crossing lines etc when I wanted to EVEN WITH A DIFFERENT COLOR THREAD FOR EACH LINE. Guess what! I'm much happier. I've made some really pretty quilts and given them to people. They like them and the quilts turned out pretty. I think everyone has a sense of what looks good & what doesn't. You'll know if you don't like it. FORGET ABOUT THE QUILT POLICE ENJOY YOUR QUILT AND QUILTING PROCESS. Good luck.

My QS owner tells me I'm the exception to the rule. I picked it up quite easily but I think I just wasn't scared and hadn't learned yet what is supposed to be hard. When I started quilting about 3 years ago my girls had American Girl dolls and so did their friends. So I made doll quilts for everyone. My second doll quilt I started meandering. It was a big enough quilt to move around easily but small enough that it wasn't heavy ad overwhelming. I've doodled all my life though (all my school books are covered with scrolls and vines) so my brain already had it memorized. That's the big thing, you need to train your brain, you know how you can type without looking? or you can type certain words or sentences without thinking about it? That's because you've done it often enough you don't need to consciously tell your fingers what to do.
So start doodling, over and over. Then make yourself up a quilt sandwich, backing, batting and a fabric for the top that is at least 14 inches square and just play. if you have a doll quilt sized piece ready, make a doll quilt! There are cold dolls everywhere, trust me, they need quilts.

have fun!

I am doing my first quilt and after practicing my husband says just do it and so I did stippling/meandering and it doesn't look that bad. I've tried doing the circles but circles aren't round and I did ups and downs on the outside border and not all are nice and rounded but I figure this is my quilt and no one else will see it and if I wait until I'm really good at it I'll never get it done.

Good luck hope you can do it. For some reason I can not relax to quilt, unless it is SID and X's if the blocks are small and it will look good on that quilt. Do baby quilts and soldiers throws but the simple things. Am jealous of all the people who can quilt.

Very interesting topic.

YES do this, she is great. There is a shell one that looks great I just did my first large one using this and it looks fab! I just practiced a few times on a scrap block and dove right in. It was really easy. I think the meander is hard.

Good advise practice practice practice

Orangeroom, that is a perfect situation for me. I love to make the tops, but not doing the quilting. I have a quilt that has been all pinned together since 2005, and still isn't quilted. And now the future recipient is finally in a relationship, so I know I will have to quilt it one of these days.