I find that putting my ironing board next to my sewing machine, on the left perpendicular, helps me tremendously. The weight of the quilt can be on the ironing board, and it gives me a "fighting chance" against gravity. I also do a lot of SID and cross stitch. I use blue painter's tape as a guide for cross stitch.
Maybe these hints can help you? I started off hating machine quilting, but now I find it very satisfying. I also use batting that allows up to ten inches between stitches. I don't like lots of stitching messing up my patterns. :)