I hand quilt and handguide LA quilt (not computer guided). I love both. One is not better than the other. Both have their merits. When well done and thoughtfully executed, both are beautiful in different ways. Both have the potential to become heirlooms and eventually, I think a hand guided well done machine quilted quilt could be a valuable, sought after antique. It just hasn't happened yet as with antique hand done quilts.
I have no time for people who think one is better, more traditional, more worthy than the other. In the evenings when watching TV I almost always have my hoop and handquilting going on. I have gotten to the point that I don't like to sit idly and watch TV, but much prefer to have a bit of handwork to keep me occupied. I find handquilting to be relaxing and a true labor of love. Labor of love being key. I think maybe your DH is looking at it this way as well.
I am very slow. Takes me over a year for a quilt that size and I have had some take up to 4 years to complete working on them off and on as the mood struck me. I enjoy the process. LAing I can complete a quilt in a weekend but usually custom takes me longer. I can not sit and visit with my DH or watch TV while LAing but I enjoy that process as well and I really like completeing the quilting in days/weeks instead of years. I feel something is missing when I don't have a quilt loaded on the LA frame. So as you can see I love both.
If you don't enjoy handquilting then you have to tell your your DH that. There are many, many quilters out there that only like to piece and don't like the quilting process at all so they send their tops out to be completed. If you do enjoy HQ (you said you had done smaller projects) and it is only the size that intimidates you then I say give it a try. Like the other poster said, how do you eat an elephant, one bite at a time. Just as the Chinese philospher Lao Tzu said: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Do not let the size intimidate you but only IF you want to take such a journey.
You may get that you look forward to your hour or two of handquilting time a few days a week. When you don't feel like working on it you don't. But really you have to decide and if you decide no, you need to calmly explain to your DH that you don't enjoy it and that it will go from a hobby you look forward to, to a dreaded chore. It won't ever be completed if you feel that way. If he still insists the quilt should be HQ (which strikes me as quite the compliment of your piecing) then send it out to be done by the Amish. You can find many HQers for hire on the net.
In regards to posters who said they wouldn't attempt a MC due to all the seams, then plan your quilting so you don't intersect the seams with quilting. I did mine by quilting various designs in the compass and background. I purposely planned my quilting to intersect as few seams as possible. In places where it was unavoidable, I stab stitched.
Here are pics of mine. This quilt took me a little over a year and a half to complete the quilting. There were periods where I didn't touch it for weeks and periods where I worked on it every single day for weeks. As the mood struck me. I enjoyed the entire process. It was a labor of love for my brother and he told me it meant a TON more to him because it WAS handquilted.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...p-t127559.html
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...n-t161213.html