Okay, I feel real embarrased to ask this question, but... When hand quilting the stippling/meandering design do you have to have a stencil or can you do it by free hand (can you do free hand in hand quilting?)? I will be starting one of my other quilts and I want to try an all over design instead of SID, but don't have a stencil to use.

Thanks in advance to you all for helping me. :)

never be embarassed with us, of course you can do it freehand but I think it would be easier for me to draw some sort of squiggly line to follow

There is a neat product for us beginners at stippling and meandering. Its called "Stipples Made Easy" and is 26' x 9 1/2 inch roll of paper with a design on top - Oh, why don't I just send you the link! Hold on.....

http://www.quiltingmadeeasy.com

They have some great border designs, too. Good luck!
Oh, wait - you said HAND sewing. I'm sorry. It could still work I guess but maybe more trouble than its worth!

thanks you guys. I thought about those "Stipples made easy", but not sure about hand quilting. On one quilt I had used different designs and used tissue paper (the gift kind) and sprayed basted that on the part I was working on, boy was that a mess.

So, when hand quilting free motion it does not have to be aligned (well, can not think of the word) though out the quilt? What if my quilting is different in areas and doesn't match?

That is the beauty of it! It's supposed to be random!

Okay, I got it now. I thought stippling had to be a certain way. I am really slow sometimes even after quilting for 4 years. Thanks Kitsie. :)

I'm not sure what you mean, are you asking what if your meander seems to get bigger or smaller in areas? There really aren't any rules but it may look kind of funny if you have a very small tight meander in one section of the quilt and a very large one in another part unless you changed it by blocks so it looks like you meant to do it. I think it would be easier to follow a drawn line even if it is a meander. I would sketch a few out on tracing paper then you can transfer it to the quilt as you go along with transdoodle transfer paper. This is how I mark some of my handquilting but I have never done a meander. You could also mark straight on the quilt with a water soluble or air soluble marker or any of the many marking tools available. And of course you could use a stencil. I have done feathers via stencils, made up designs like the above, stencils of other designs and cross hatching or straight lines 1/4" from the ditch using painters tape as a guide or simply marking with a chalk pencil or other tool and ruler. Here is a link to my current hand quilting project. http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-47093-1.htm I did this by drawing the design then transferring it to tracing paper then transferring to the quilt with transdoodle.

OMG I wanna be like you when I grow up... What kind of tracing paper (like the kind used to trace clothing patterns?) and what is the transdoodle?

Thanks :)
Yes. Just the cheapo stuff you buy in a pad at walmart, michaels or office supply stores.
Transdoodle is the name brand of the paper. It is a transfer paper, kind of like the same idea as carbon paper. It has a chalky coating on one side. You put that side down on top of your quilt or fabric and then put your design over it and go over the lines of your design with a stylus or dryed up ball point pen. If you google transdoodle you will get tons of hits. Here is one
http://www.overstock.com/Crafts-Sewi...1/product.html One thing about it, I found it very hard to tell chalk side from non chalk side, at least on the white, so after having the paper upside down a couple of times and going over an entire design and only succeeding in transferring the design to the back of my tracing paper I marked the side that should be up and facing me "UP!" :lol:

Like Kathy already said you can of course do meandering freehand. I do a lot of quilting freehand, little motifs like spirals, feather etc. and it's a lot of fun.
What I've learned out of books stippling by hand looks a little different to stippling by machine not only because of the different look of the quilting stitches and how the rows of quilting are arranged. The quilting lines are very close to each other.
I love to do hand stippling because the contrast to the main quilting patterns is bigger and the patterns stand out very well.
I added 2 pictures of hand stippling here. Maybe this is not what you want to do but it gives you an idea how hand stippling can look like.