Before I had my long arm, I did stitch in the ditch around the blocks and sashing's, I then tied the quilt inside the blocks in about four places I believe. The quilt did hold up well over several years finally fading as it was near a window. I have also used a decorative stitch on smaller quilted items isolated from each other. I would just make a sample using some waste batting and fabric to see how it looks. Make sure you use a regular thread and not rayon embroidery thread as rayon doesn't hold up well sometimes.