I completed a colorful Christmas table top runner by hand quilting it. I am also rather new and was concerned about my being able to quilt it as I wanted to on the machine. I hand quilted about 1/4 inch away from each seam and used the thread color of the area I was working on. It actually turned out well and even the back looks great. Since then I have a stitch in the ditch foot and one that is a quarter inch away from the ditch with a guide that runs into the ditch to help keep things straight. That has worked well also. When doing that I used a neutral color. Enjoy!!