this is what I would do.

I love to hand quilt, but like you, sometimes I have trouble figuring out what to do. Always, at that point, I cross hatch. I would do that in each square, marking with a marking pencil about 1-1/2 inch. Sometimes I use a yard stick so I do not have to measure each time. I did this on a Chitstmas tree and stopped at the tree and continued on the other side of the tree. You could stop at the hand print. Hope this is helpful.

I think to echo quilting would be so cool, but if you want you could echo quilt at one or two inch away from the outer edge of the square.

Mad...that is just stunning work...I think echo quilting would look great and maybe following the waves in the design on the sashing. The idea of a cursive "hope" is brilliant too, but sounds amazingly difficult (I am a "machine" newbie, so the fear factor would be huge).

Please let us know what you decide...and pics would be fantastic.

Mad - Here's a simple suggestion, which I know is probably too late for you. SID the sashing betweent the hand blocks. Then 45 degree cross-hatch the hand blocks at 1/2" intervals. You can either cross-hatch over the hands or stop at the edge of each and SID around each hand. Your choice. Either would look fine. Or you could try to convince DH, that you just can't complete this quilt without Qbot and he should go out a buy it for you right away. Qbot comes with some heart motifs, which might be appropriate for this quilt.

What a fun quilt. I love it.....can't help you on the quilting question.

I was going to suggest cross-hatching about 1/2" apart. It would make the hands really stand out.

I like this suggestion best :) :)

I like the idea of echo quilting. It isn't near as hard as FMQ. JUst keep your quilting foot on the machine and all the curves will b smooth.

What wonderful bright colors! I would do echo quilting around the hands and stitch in the ditch everywhere else. It will be wonderful no matter how it's quilted! :-P
Ditter