visit any of the long-arm dealerships- they (mostly) have free videos- showing most of the process- also, if you have the opportunity to visit any quilt shows- quite often there will be a long-arm set up somewhere for people to actually try it out- and see it in action.
ruler work is when you use rulers/templates to stitch straight lines-designs
there are thousands of different pantos- printed/buyable designs...a panto is layed out on the quilting table- a laser stylis is lined up on the pattern- corresponding with needle placement on the quilt top- then the machine is (driven along- following the laser light)
quilts are loaded on roller bars= first the backing (facing the floor) then the top- facing up- with the batting floating in between...some quilters use mirrors to check out the bottom as they go along