Quilting the The White Knight

I may jump around a bit on this poor animal....
The background was not quilted first but I'll address it now. A light gray background was painted so the horse would look "more white" and more important.  In the quilting... I was thinking about the air moving about as this giant animal ran forward. Before loading the quilt for quilting, I had premarked a repeated  'wave' pattern. The wave itself was not quilted (i.e.  left to be more prominent) as the area between each  curvy wave was quilted in a back and forth curvy meander I call 'bumpy ride.'  A peak at the background is seen below and to the right of the horses head.
Now... to work on my horse
 I always WANT to leave some softer areas unquilted IF I can get away with it.  I like the softest possible look around eyes...  I quilted most all the body in white but as I got closer to the eyes... I stopped and left them to decide what else if any 'til the very end when ....

I decided I needed to do more around the eye though I used warmer value tones in quilting. I STILL left a bit unquilted.

As I worked on the jaw line of my Knight, I realized I needed lots of change in direction in quilting patterns. That said, I first used a purple ink ( disappearing) to section off  small areas before quilting.  CLICK on photos for enlarged view. 

The body of the horse was done almost exclusively in white  but for areas ( e.g. horses underbelly) which was a good bit darker ( dark being relative ofcourse). I used the same  disappearing purple marker  to section small areas before quilting.

The mane was the greatest challenge... LONG (controlled) sweeping movements on the longarm were a serious challenge of for me.  The challenge got bigger as the mane got longer.  

All in all, he looks okay. He's submitted for a January Show... Hope he is juried in.

                                                   (C)  my copywritten image