I don't see it as cheating either. I use my decorative stitches all the time.

I use my machine for this because I am a newbie and I dont know how to fmq yet and I paid alot for those stitches so I better use them....lol

Ann Clare beat me to it! Very nice work!!!

That's one of the reasons I bought a new machine, to have more decorative stitches that I can use.

Its like modern day way of doing crazy quilts :!:

It's just a different technique-definitely not cheating

Not cheating, but the reason we don't use them more is that they don't look great on the quilt back and the 3 quilting layers, moving through the machine doing an intricate design, sometimes can make the design wonky.

I mainly would use decorative stitching on the quilt top before it was sandwiched and then it goes through the machine smoothly. Throw in 3 layers, and not so smoothly:>

Nice use of the decorative stitches!

My only complaint is that sometimes the stitch pattern I like doesn't make a big enough stitch for where I want it. I think they are a handy way to add interest.

Not cheating...thats why the stitches are on the machine...to enjoy!

I love my machine's decorative stitches. I use them to bind my quilts. I machine stitch it to the back, then decorative stitch it along the edge to the front. This is lovely, btw. :-)