I'd like to add something to any new hand quilter. Like anything else it takes practice. I do not recommend colored quilt thread until you have nice even stitches. White and off-white hide mismatched stitches :)

You can do it!!!!
I tend to do a lot of diagonal quilting on my quilts with even size blocks. I really like to pick a decorative stitch and come across the quilt with it.

The easiest way to start machine quilting is to use a walking foot. If you don't have one it is well worth the investment. Then just quilt in straight lines. I, too, use painters tape. It comes in varied widths and doesn't leave residue on the fabric and comes off easily.
I enjoy FMQ. I just do stippling or easy designs like hearts, stars, butterflies, simple flowers.

I also use the painters tape so that I can get nice straight lines across the quilt. Just don't stitch over the tape, makes it really hard to remove.

wow, in toda'ys world there are millions of stencils both plastic and paper that you can get to help you hand and/or machine quilt...straight stitching or SID are so gone....

http://www.electricquilt.com and look up the Quiltmaker CD's that have over 500 patterns on them....amazing what you can with those...I use golden threads paper to track or print on and use those to guide my machine quilting!

By hand I use them to make pin dot tracings, or I use magic chalk duster and pounce on stencils!

I love hand quilting but it just takes forever. I started quilting on my regular machine and it saves a lot of time. Nothing fancy just in the ditch or quarter inch away from the ditch. I prefer simple quilting so I can enjoy the fabrics better. I've been hand quilting a queen sized log cabin on and off about 3 years now!

Wow. Thanks Ya'll for all of the wonderful feedback. I will start with the hand quilting and keep you posted. Wish me luck!