Many years ago I clamped and pushed a quilt through my machine and at first the were a bit rough. After that on larger quilts I started hand quilting them. I have never long armed a quilt but sure would love to and am thinking about it. Even my avatar is hand quilted. I was unable to get the majority of the quilt under the machine so that took care of that . For years I used my grace frame and my Brothers 1500se. Right now it is not working either. Seems the frame is out of wack right now. Recently I have been doing QAYG projects that allow me to quilt on my smaller machines with little to no stress on my arms. My home quilting is always evolving for this I am grateful. I have no clue where the future goes. You might want to try a number of different techniques. Don't give up!