Sailorwoman is correct, there are ways. One I know of is to cut the batting into thirds and only add it as you are done quilting the previous section that has batting. In other words, place batting in the center third only, quilt that, leaving unquilted space where it needs to be joined to the next third of batting, join the batting and quilt the second third of the quilt, and on with the last third of batting. You can also get a sit down machine with a wide throat. There are many available. Janome has some, like the 8900. You can also get a Babylock Sashiko and machine quilt with stitches that look like hand quilting. Lots of options out there, look around, get suggestions here from people who have machines you may like.