I'm hand quilting my first quilt now. It's relaxing for me compared to wrestling a large quilt through my machine. I have accumulated a collection of thimbles, etc. trying to find the best setup for me.
Of course without realizing, I picked a difficult pattern for beginning hand quilting.. a Dresden Plate which requires going around in circles. You will probably be more comfortable with one direction of hand quilting at first. Thank goodness I hadn't invested in an expensive frame, because I need a hoop so I can frequently turn my quilt as I stitch from right to left.