Starting To Quilt a Quilt Show piece

This piece once finished won't appear in any show 'til next year but this is a good-sized art piece that should call for about 6 weeks of quilting work plus finishing.. so I have to be on the move... besides... I have to move beyond the now seeming theft of my Winged Lion shown below in previous post mid May.  I had hoped it would show up by now but not so far. Please... if you've seen it... help me get it back.

Now to my mountain lion in summer. ( You will see portions of this piece but as I move along you are unlikely to see the entire piece straight on. It's not something one fully displays 'til complete and in competition.  I am nonetheless posting pics of quilting techniques chosen  for given areas as education by seeing is part of my blogging goal.)

 I generally pin my quilts, then secure  ( 'ditch' like )  major areas with monofilament. I will remove pins as I approach quilting an area I have 'ditched.'    This is a vertical rectangle with the lion perched atop a rock ledge about mid way up the rectangle. A shadow on the ledge area goes from left edge across 3/4 of the quilt width.  The  ledge is where I will begin  as I work from the middle of a piece outward/downward to minimize the potential for surface distortion.  Shadows are generally COOL... so mid value blue poly thread it is... 40 wt. I am using a back and forth curved meander that runs horizontal side to side of quilt somewhat visually and realistically stabilizing the mid quilt area.

Given the repeated sharp point turnarounds in this stitch pattern, it is mighty critical to pretest tension stitching on a separate 'play' quilt sandwich. Since the nature of bobbin action in our machines like it better, I am  also stitching up and down ( North/ South) as opposed to right/ left ( West/ East).

Before I move upward to the big cat... I also added a dark thread curved upward linear pattern  to the under side of the ledge.

All stitching doesn't need to be fancy... I never want a thread pattern to take stage over the story of a piece.  In choosing quilting motifs... to me, it's all about helping tell the story of the painted image.