The first quilts I made I tied because I was terrified to machine quilt. When I tried it for the first time, I had used polyfill batt and my regular sewing foot and it was a disaster, but my young daughter loved it horse panel quilt anyway.
I have since machine quilted, usually straight lines, and they come out to my satisfaction, but it takes a lot of thread and sometimes hides the prettiness of the fabrics I have spent a lot of time choosing. Since you don't really need miles of thread to anchor the three layers, I thought I might applique or outline stitch on the plain parts, or even try some fabric manipulation before hand.
It's interesting to hear what you've all done - any pictures to go along?