I used to do my own quilting. I had an old Singer 241 that was set up for free motion quilting. I mostly used the squish (puddling) method and never got past meandering. It was too tough to move a large quilt around and sync moving the quilt to the stitch speed.
But the worst part was the quilt sandwich. No matter what I do, there's a fold, a tuck, or a bubble. Didn't matter how I pinned or basted or how much I clamped the backing to the table before I basted together. I finally gave up and found someone nearby with a long-arm set up. Best idea I ever had. I don't mind paying about $100 per twin size quilt. I don't have the space for a long-arm setup and the ROI is about 150 quilts. I am proud to support my local economy.