I just finished the top for a baby quilt my daughter requested. It is mostly white with a navy blue pieced sailboat in the center of nine large patches, and an 8 inch border of two navy strips alternating with white. Very simple, classic, and will show everything. All my fabric has been pre washed except for the wool batting. It looks nice, not perfect, so far - but now I am afraid I am going to ruin it with sloppy quilting. First, a couple of my 9x11 squares are poofy and my attempts to iron them flatter seem to be making it worse not better. They fit together perfectly but now look like they need to shrink somehow.

Second, how do I quilt this? Should I outline the boat and the striped border, and then what? I bought a template that reminded me of waves - kind of elaborate sideways s's. (the letter S) but I don't really know where to use it. Just under the boat or all over the background? I made a baby quilt 20 years ago that combined machine quilting and handquilting, but even on the printed fabric it looks like a child did the handquilting. I am afraid that machine quilting on my cheapo machine will push the fabric into puckers where lines meet. What method do you think would be easiest for an amateur to make this look nice? She is designing the whole nursery for her first child around this quilt and I told her I could do it. It sounded easy at the time. Can you please help me?