You could stitch your hearts by just quilting the backing to the wadding. Then put the top onto the already quilted backing and wadding and stitch in the ditch to join all three layers. The back will show the squares from stitching in the ditch but the top will not show any stitching.
I have done this the other way around by quilting the top/wadding together and then laying it on top of the backing and joined with sitd.