You may want to look at a straight-stitch quilting machine such as the Pfaff Grandquilter, Juki 980?, Brother 1600.....they are pretty much all the same machine and should be available in your price range. They only do straight stitches but they do them really fast. The Grandquilter does not lower the feed dogs but does have a cover plate. These are mechanical machines which require a bit of fiddeling with tension (until you find the right setting) and they have a large harp.