Florida River Art Quilt 2

I spent most of today working on the River Art Quilt for the local show again.  I'm thinking I'm about halfway now.  At Vicki's suggestion I have added two birds and a nest.  Can you find them?  I wasn't sure about where to put the nest so DD came in and nestled it in for me and I think that works just fine right where she put it.  She also wasn't thrilled where I thought she'd suggested the branches on the Cypress Tree (the big thing in the center) should go, so I fixed one to her liking and explained why the other one wouldn't work (a balance issue)  and after adding more and more detail decided it needed another branch.  I have a fair idea how to quilt the greenery - leaves, needles, and so forth, and the tree trunks will clearly have bark.  Likely I will run with the batiks and let them tell me how to quilt the rocks.  The water should flow so that shouldn't be a problem.  But what about those little plants and so forth?  Do you think I should just go with the print?

River Quilt Scene in Pieces

I find I'm torn for quilting it as well.  Do I free-motion quilt it on the little Elna (and brave those pins), or do I go for the more reliable control and mount a backing and batting on the quilt frame and then just float this little piece on top?  Perhaps I should plan a quick baby quilt and quilt that while I have this on the frame.  They would have the same backing that way, but could also create an unwelcome distraction with each advance of the frame - this would likely only need two possibly three advances.

So far the raw edge is only the palm tree in the upper right (which is true raw without web underneath but I think it's good for a Palm to fray a bit - more realistic that way), the cardinal and the blue bird, oh and the nest when I fuse that on.  Truly the more I see it where DD put it the more I like it.  I'm also thinking about hiding a panther face in the shadows.  I have a cat face that is about the right size, but it's black with wonderfully glowing yellow eyes...  A face in the shadows would be shadowed though right?

This little wonder is getting heavy too.  The muslin runs throughout the bottom as I mentioned, then the forest green fusions in the background of the top third, and all those little pieces. Along the top especially towards the left you can see where I'm allowing the sunshine to peak through the trees.  What do you think that?  It seemed natural that in looking across a river you would see the sunlight like that.

And hey what do you think about binding?  I was thinking scrappy binding so it would flow around the quilt in blues, tans, blues to greens and back?  But that I'm not sure.  Since the quilt is supposed to be connecting many other art quilts.  What do you think others will do with their binding?