The border of this quilt is quilted with black core madeira dragonflies. All fmq. I love the twinkle that the black core gives to the quilt and its much more subtle than metallics would be. I think I used gold. It was the first quilt that I quilted on my Brother PQ1500 when I got it and I roared along at top speed to do it. The black core loved the machine. The only marking I did were curves to mark the dragonflies position. The rest of the quilt is heavily quilted with plants and bugs and flowers from a garden. I painted the magnolia with setacolor and then thread painted it.