This is your second quilt -- that clerk was misinformed! Tying is a method of holding a quilt together that is centuries old.
It is hard to advise you without knowing what types of quilting you would consider. Since you're a newbie, I'd say use your sewing machine to do straightline quilting. I think that quilting straight across the quilt, on a line that will be 1/4 to 1/2 inch inside the seamline of a block would be good. Does that make sense? One half inch masking tape is good for marking long straight lines on a quilt top.