Okay, I'm getting ready to start drawing my design on the fabric. I'm definitely going to do their names & date - you think embroidering this is the way to go? Or should I try quilting it?

And then do the diagonal lines for the whole rest of the quilt? Or did you mean inside the heart?

One thing I was thinking of doing is tying the center (the green part), and doing a simple lattice pattern on the sides (the white). Thoughts?

The other thing I was going to try was to do a meandering with hearts or something all over besides the names & date in center - but is this too ambitious for a beginner? I think I can do it but don't want to risk screwing it up. :) I'm not good at envisioning what it will look like quilted, which is why I'm perfectly happy to do something simple like lines or lattice..I just want it to look really nice!

Anyone? :D

You can draw your design on paper (newsprint or Golden Threads quilting paper) and pin it to the fabric. Then you just stitch through the paper and remove it when you are finished.

Try out your ideas on a practice quilt sandwich before you actually start on the real thing. I cut squares about 9 x 9 to practice on. It takes about 20 minutes for your muscles to warm up. You can always use the practice pad as a potholder afterward. I have a lot of strange looking potholders LOL

I would cross hatch the center and perhaps do parallel lines of quilting in the border about 1" apart. Stitch in the ditch between the center and border. This will fix tht area and allow you to do a different cross hatching or parallel lines in the border. Since you indicate a need for confidence then I suggest simple.