JakRabbit ... your quilt is absolutely adorable!
What a treasure for that first grandbaby to enjoy for a long time.
Using a walking foot is always the best option, when machine quilting. Again, I don't know your machine, but this is pretty much a generic statement in the world of machine quilting. It will help to feed the layers all together and you'll have less bunching and scrunching.
Buttttttt .... being a hand quilter, are you sure you really want to do this on a machine???
It would make this quilt even more of a treasure.
Can't wait to see your PP raccoons too!