I love threads like this one that make me actually think about how I quilt. Like you, I do a "fast and easy" quilts for service quilts and quick gifts for babies and kids. These, I try to make durable and useable, knowing they will be tossed in the washer often. For my own satisfaction, I gravitate toward very traditional quilts, often using 30's fabric or embroidery but quilted on the machine. Probably 80 percent of my machine quilting is feathers because it gives such a nice, traditional look to the work. Once in awhile, I do a novelty quilt but these tend to gobble up even more time than the traditional quilts--probably because I invest so much time in figuring out how to get a "look" that I want. There's one of those in progress now and I sometimes think it will never see completion.