How to quilt your beautiful quilt...
 

Your quilt is absolutely beautiful!I can tell you did lots of planning and work on it. All of the suggestions for how to quilt look great to me, altho I haven't become interested in machine quilting.
I think it is beautiful and love it, but just piecing and layering a quilt is about as far as I get.
Hope you show it to us when it is all done!
Good luck; I am jealous.!!!
Mariah

I'd be careful with veriagated thread as I think it might detract. Puddle a bunch of the thread you are thinking about using across a variety of parts of the quilt and you will get a good idea of what it might look like.