[My first quilting machine was a cheap brother with all the attachments and table but it dosnt have needle down and that ruins it for quilting. ]
My first machine did not have a needle down option either. But I was able to use it for quilting on a sewing machine quilting frame. My husband had rigged up a little push button device that I could push when standing in front of the frame and I got quite good at pushing the button just right so that it would stop with the needle down. I made 3 quilts using this system.
After making the 3 large quilts, I was able to upgrade to the Viking Mega Quilter for my quilting frame. I do love the needle down when I am quilting but that is the only time I use it.
I leave that machine on my quilting frame and I use other machines for piecing.
For the newbys, when you are piecing your quilt blocks together, you don't need a needle down option.
None of my machines that I piece with have the "needle down" option. Of course, that may be because I love Vintage machines. I recently added another vintage machine to my collection. I have 2 featherweights; 2 Singer 301's; a Singer 401; a Singer 403; a Singer 404; a Singer 66; a Singer treadle; and a New Home machine that I bought new 20 years ago. (The New Home is the one that I originally put on my quilting frame. It is still going strong.)
I heard about one woman that uses her Singer 301 on her machine quilting frame. I didn't realize it at that time, but it has the same amount of space from the needle towards the end as a regular sewing machine.
My point is that there is no..."have to have this type of machine" to do quilting. You just need a good machine that doesn't cause you frustration every 5 minutes from tension problems and you can come up with solutions to deal with everything else in quilting. I know some people who do free motion quilting on their old treadles. (I don't think I'm coordinated enough to do that.)