Most of my quilting on my smaller quilts is SID. I have not mastered FMQ and I hesitate to try it on a finished piece. That should be my goal for the rest of the year. Wish me luck!
Theresa

I haven't done enough quilting to have a favorite! I've done SITD and FMQ and am dying to try some feathers. I just can't seem to get organize and enough time at the machine to practice. Some day.....

Robbi

I usually do SITD or 1/4" away from the seam line. I did loop-de-loops the few times I free motioned.

SharonG/FL

I prefer pantographs for my quilt system. And I do have a few favorite designs there that I tend to use over and over.

Stippling/meandering is fun on the frame too.

I do lots of meandering loops, not b/c it's a favorite but b/c it's easy and doesn't require any planning! LOL I do like to do feathers and have been practicing Hooked on Feathers. I love the look of stippling but don't do a lot of it.

Donna

I usually do a medium size stipple also known as meandering. Another thing I've done quite a bit is what I would call concentric squares. I pick out lines on the quilt that will help determine the size of my pattern and start on the outside. I form the square as best I can (no bigger than 6" or so) and keep going in so they get smaller and smaller. When I get to the middle I end my stitch line, raise the needle and presser foot and pull it over to the adjoining area and do another square. That's probably clear as mud. Lately I've been renting time on a long arm machine and have done free motion exclusively although next week I'm going to try a pantograph. Although the long arm has the stitch regulator, it still takes a lot of practice to create nice smooth stitch lines and I'm not sure I will ever be ready for wreaths and feathers. Appreciate your long arm quilter. They spend a lot of time getting as good as they are.

In the body of the quilt I mostly do FM meandering, not too small, sometimes with loop-de-loops thrown in. I'm big on loop-de-loops because you can vary them from large to small and everything in between.

On borders I like to do loop-de-loop leaves, stars, or hearts. I also like to make double loops, a smaller one within a large loop. I like to quilt a small heart somewhere on each quilt I make as a gift, to show it was made with love to the recipient.

Teresa

I do a lot of SID and when I FM it is usually meanandering. I don't have a frame so I just tug & sling my quilts through my machine! It seems to limit some of the things one can do! I did do some loop-d-loops on the last quilt. I think I would like to practice making connecting hearts on the next one I do. I just know that I need more practice on FM!
Sue

My go to is a medium free hand meander. I can just relax and let it go. I've tried a pantograph, but need lots of practice.

beverly

I'm with Sue on the 'tug & sling' method lol!!!! I would love to have a quilting system and DH has said go for it, BUT, it would take up my entire tiny sewing room.
So on the machine I usually SID. I have practiced FMQing and the back was looking fairly decent then I stopped so now I will have to start over.
I was practicing feathers and I love them. I need to get the Hooked on Feathers book, I've heard great reviews about it.
Rosa

I mostly use a free motion meander too and often add in some leaves or other simple thing. One of my favorite add-ins is a big poofy flower that looks kind of like a cotton boll. This type of FM quilting goes fast and eats up the yards! It makes for a soft quilt too because the stitch lines aren't very close together.

Here's my cotton-y FM:
(sorry the picture is so fuzzy!)
{{!gwi}}

Kate

I have that feathers book and have practiced, practiced, practices... I am no good at it. I think I may be stitch dyslexic, because when I mean to go right I often jog left. You can get by with that when stippling but it makes for very uneven feathers! My quilting buddy keeps saying "a feather is just half a heart, repeated over and over". I still can't do it.

Kate

I prefer a freehand feathering and just go nuts with it. It seems to come easier than following a straight line. I sometimes draw the "spine" in to follow but not always. I usually do one side of the feather first and then the other but can do both at the same time if I need to. It takes practice and I started with stencils but now I prefer to do it on my own. I sometimes make marks here and there for guidance.

As I am machine quilting challenge I usualy SITD or stipple because I "can". I do follow the design of a pattern sometimes which I am not always pleased with but think I am improving. If I were younger and had the room I would love to have a Long Arm machine but now anything I truly care aboult will be sent out.
For hand quilting I use stencils or echo quilting and use what fits the situation, no favorites there.

Love your cottony FM, Kate! So pretty and wonderful originality!

I am just beginning to venture beyond meanders, loop d loops, echoes and stipples. Really want to get the feathers down. Have watched various online tutorials and seems no one does them exactly alike and I get muscle memory overload! lol

Dee

I haven't made enough quilts to have a favorite...still very inexperienced. I have done STID, 1/4 from seam, and echo. Even with my Janome 6600, getting a quilt of any size to move through the harp is hard! Simply don't know how anyone does it. I am always impressed with anyone's machine quilting. Plus I don't "relax" enough to get the stippling or meandering even enough to look right. Big ole stitches to little tiny ones....just looks like a mess. Last time I tried it, I just ripped/unsewed it all out.
Simply have to take more time to practice practice practice.
Or maybe I'll try the hand quilting method next time....

Even stitches is definitely the hardest part and being able to maneuver the quilt around is the second hardest part! Stitch regulators make me drool and I go all glassy eyed when I see the machines with the 16" harp. Want one!

One of my free motion tricks, to help get even stitches and keep the tension right, is to slide the speed control from my usually Full On Rabbit setting over towards the Turtle. That way I can't get ahead of myself!

Kate

Love the cotton boll, Kate! I have freehanded that one on paper. That is another exercise that I find helpful: to draw the quilting pattern on paper over and over again to train my brain to make the design - before I put the quilt under the machine to stitch.

Teresa