Answers to a few questions...

Yes Joan, 12 wt thread is thick.  I think it may even be thicker than Jean Stitch (you know the gold thread that jeans are top stitched with?)  I started out trying to use a size 20 needle, but kept getting skips...  Me being too lazy to retime my machine, so I switched back to my normal 18.  Worked great!  I stitched really, really slow for most of my designs.  This helped with accuracy....  with that thick of thread I knew every bobble would show!

Ethne....  yes you can achieve this.  It just takes practice.  You have to remember that I have 11 going on 12 years of practice.  One thing I do everyday is draw....  Doodle....   and draw some more.  I draw on every little piece of scrap paper that comes my way.  This is what helps me learn new designs and to put them into my memory.  When I first started machine quilting and someone would tell me to draw, I thought that was silly.  I could way better than draw....  Now I draw every single day!  I draw feathers everyday....  feathers don't come easy for me, but with drawing them I can stitch them with ease :-)

Thanks for all the nice comments!!!!