When I first started quilting, I did what is sometimes called lapquilting, doing the piecing/appliqueing of the block (20 inches or so with sashing) and then sandwiching and backing it and quilting it before sewing the blocks together (by machine on top and by hand on back) -- this method worked well and was easy to do on the machine -- as an alternative, strips of blocks could be done the same way -- I have seen other methods of quilting shown here on QB -- good luck as it seems that nothing is really easy and each method has drawbacks --