Completion of "Dancing Trees"

I had a fun time quilting this project. I added stitching on the trees and some of the leaves. The contrast between the quilted leaves and the unstitched leaves gives a feeling of depth. The ground was enhanced with quilted "grass". The batik bottom border was finished with diagonal lines. Additional quilting was needed in the sky area. The brown border was quilted with vertical lines.

We all admire a quilt that lays flat and hang smoothly on the wall with no wobbles along the edge. One of the keys to that flat quilt is an equal amount of quilting over the surface. Intense quilting in only selected areas of the project will draw the fabric together and you will see the fabric pulling to that area. Often borders are insufficiently quilted resulting in a quilt that refuses to lay smooth. I've found that quilting that crosses that borders (i.e. crosshatching or vertical lines) helps to draw up the edge and straight line quilting that follows the length of the border tends to stretch the edge.

What are your favorite solutions to the perfect quilt?