Quilting questions

Hmm. Have I been sewing? Not really. I put the border on one of my Mexican Star quilts but I'm still contemplating machine quilting designs. This striped fabric in my stash had the same basic colors and a Mexican tile atmosphere so I decided to use this fairly easily. Now to quilt. I have a question. When you do machine quilting (domestic machine) do you do everything completely freehand or do you sew over a pattern or what?

In the very beginning of my adventure into machine quilting, I tried drawing a simple pattern onto paper and then sewed right through the paper onto the fabric (later pulling the paper off). That met with minor success. Getting rid of paper residue was another tedious step, the paper shifted somewhat during the process, and I couldn't see where I quilted in tucks until after I removed the paper.

I've been doing complete freehand quilting with minor success also. I tend to get smaller and smaller with feathers and stippling and have trouble with bigger designs as well as getting regular spacing.

I have penciled in feathered circles on a quilt too and tried to quilt on those lines but that circle was a real bear! And of course I couldn't really control the needle well enough to trace the lines.

Now I'm looking at the Mexican Star and have a plan for inside part but not for this new border. I'm thinking I'd like to quilt something regular in the border but should I try using paper again? Tracing a pattern? Eyeballing it?

What are some of your tips for machine quilting a border pattern?