It sounds like you might be like me in many ways. I started quilting because I loved the beautiful hand quilted treasures I'd see on beds or hung from walls. I wanted to do that. But I'm getting older (70 my next birthday) and I'm slow at hand quilting. I don't have a lot of tops because I finish them rather than pile them up but I decided some time ago that I just didn't have the time to hand quilt everything I make. And, I can't afford having them LA quilted. I know those ladies deserve the price they charge but it's just not possible with my pocketbook. I do many of my quilts on my own sewing machines. If it's a special quilt, I still hand quilt it. But if you haven't tried doing machine sewing on your home machine, make up a small piece and try it. That might solve the problem and become another fun thing to do. Of course, perhaps you can afford to have them all done by a LA quilter.