My theory is that a top is not useful until it's finished, and it doubles in beauty by being quilted and bound. I don't have UFO's because it's my nature to finish each project before starting another. But it's also my nature to want to do all the piecing and quilting myself, and like you I hated basting (and that was before spray basting was available). So for the few years before I had a longarm I quilted in sections from Marti Michelle's book Machine Quilting in Sections. (That is definitely not the same as QAYG.) You could look into that. Or you might ask a talented longarmer to accept some of your tops as payment in return for quilting some of them. But it's also perfectly okay to decide just to make tops, if that makes you happy, and dream of finishing them someday. I think the big stitch quilting is lovely, but I suspect you would still need to baste.