I like to starch the back very well and pin pin pin lots of pins. Then I divide the quilt into 4 sections starting straight down the middle and then accros the middle,In the beginning I actually used painted tape to divide the sections. I start to quilt in the top right section and work down then turn the quilt and quilt the lower left up to the top left this way you only have half of the quilt under the machine at any time and you aren't tusseling it around as much.