You don't need any fancy tools or machines for quilting. My grandmother started me quilting with fabric scraps left over from making clothes, and a cardboard template made from a cereal box. I sewed by hand, and pieced that first quilt on both sides. I initially tied the quilt, but later hand quilted it. I made clothes on my mother's old Singer Sewing machine that she had bought shortly after she started working. I bought a Singer Touch and Sew when I was in college and working. I was surprised how much I had paid for it when I looked up the cost. It was $350 in the early 70's. That was a lot of money to spend at that time, even though I was working. The machine had fancy stitches on cams, and I used some of them. I still have it and it still works 40 years later. It has a decent throat space, and I've machine quilted king sized quilts in it. I recently discovered spray basting, and that works better than pin basting.
No one should be trying to make you feel bad because you don't have or can't afford the most recent or most expensive toys. A large number of people in our local group have Singer Featherweights that they take to quilt bees, or small, inexpensive lightweight machines. Some come and just hand-sew or hand-quilt. Everyone has been helpful, lots of compliments, very little negative comments.