I love to hand quilt and stitch in the ditch all the time. Sometimes I even go back and stitch inside the blocks if the mood hits. A lot depends on the type of bat you use too. Those really flat bats are good for machine quilting. I find the 100% cotton bats hard to hand quilt. Log Cabin is my favorite block and I make it all the time or some variation of it.
I have to say that while I like art quilts, I love bed quilts. When I go to shows, sometimes the beautiful machine quilting overtakes the beautiful piecing. Sometimes they enhance each other. But it doesn't matter what I like. It's what you like that counts. After quilting for a while, you'll find that the quilt will tell you what it wants. But you do have to listen!