Give free motion quilting a go by all means but if you're like me I find it very difficult. There are other ways to quilt though. You could echo the shape of your leaves by stiting in rows around the leaves. You could do a number of straight line patterns like cross hatching. Here's a site that might help you with some FMQ patterns if you decide to do it. There is even a free ebook to download.
http://www.linda-matthews.com/free-m...ting-patterns/