I recently put together a set up that might be helpful for you. Years ago I bought a New Joy quilting frame at a garage sale. It sat unused until recently, when I bought a Janome 1600P and put a stitch regulator on it to use with the rack. The stitch regulator has a little hand held piece with the start/stop button, which allows me to move my machine on the rack with one hand. I don't know if you have room for a rack, but I don't use my feet with it at all.
I bought the Janome on ebay for $600 (I think they usually go for $900, but I bet you can find a machine for somewhere around the $600 range), and the Quilter's Cruise Control was under $500 on sale. The rack was $200, and goes down to about 5 feet so it would be good for your smaller quilts. New Joy is out of business, but maybe you can find a similar one like I did.
If you can't use the rack, the Janome has a start/stop button and only does high speed straight stitch, so it's perfect for quilting.
Anyway. I hope that helps!