Welcome to the board from Southern California!!!
I have a quite a collection of tops waiting for me to try and figure out how I am going to quilt them. The quilting part is not my strong point and like you, cannot afford to send them all out to be done. I am practicing free motion on several charity quilts that I have done and I also have done quite a few where I have stitched diagonally across the quilt with a wavy stitch or something other than a straight stitch. You can also use a fancy stitch or even a wavy stitch in the ditch for a nice effect and if your aren't perfectly in the "ditch" it is not noticeable. Give the quilting a try!!!!