I, too think the quilting is lovely. Very complimentary and not distracting. Sometimes machine quilting gets too busy, in my opinion and this one is not at all.
I think, as others have said here, your hand quilting experience is making you too critical.
If I were to receive this as a gift I would probably cry!!
From JOY, that is!!
As the lady at JoAnn's said, the other day when I was purchasing fabric for my new quilt..."You must love someone VERY much to be giving this away"!!!