Thank you for all the lovely comments and photos. I totally agree with both camps.... Yes I think it deserves hand quilting but I know it will take me years and it is a "beast" of a quilt to wrestle with and have on my lap to hand quilt. I could rent time on a long arm machine but am not sure that I want to practice with this quilt. I could machine quilt it on my machine, I like the idea of making a flower in each of the colored flowers, I like the idea of pebbles, but it seems like an awful lot of pebbles.
Some one on a face book page had the best idea... send it out to someone else to do and get it back all done beautifully... I love this idea but sorry to say I don't think I can afford to do this
My flowers are all paper pieced, I have taken out some of the papers.... many more to go. I have not repeated fabrics for any of the flowers although some of the centers are repeats. As I look towards finishing this, I also am thinking of my next project to hand piece as I am now accustomed to sewing while I watch TV.