Poly batting is the easiest to hand quilt. I like Hobbs Polydown. Also, make sure your thread is "hand quilting thread", not just "quilting thread". Hand quilting thread has an extra coating on it so it is less likely to tangle. I suggest you force yourself to learn to use a thimble on the middle finger of your dominate hand. It is SOOOO awkward at first, but it becomes second nature after awhile. A hoop or some type of floor frame is the easiest way for me to do it. Make sure you don't have things stretched too tightly. If you are used to doing hand embroidery in a hoop, where you like everything stretched nice and tight, you will need to learn that it works differently when quilting. It needs to have a bit of give to it. Someone has described it as loose enough that it seems like your cat took a nap in it. :-)
Most importantly, don't expect perfection on your first quilt. Many years ago, when my grandmother was teaching me to quilt, her first requirement was that the stitches be small enough that no one would catch their toes in them. The second one was work more for even stitches than tiny ones. (I learned from the best. She grew up Amish and was a "professional" quilter who did custom hand quilting for many years. In fact, there was a quilt in the frame in her house when she died. I hope I go that way too.)
I have been hand quilting for over 40 yrs. (Yes, I started when I was about 12 yrs. old.) If you have any questions feel free to PM me. I would LOVE to help keep hand quilting going in this world of machines. (Nothing against you machine quilters. We need both!)