When I was a child I went to quilting bees with women who were born in the 1800s. The method they taught was to stretch the back, batting, and top on a 4 sided frame, then roll 2 (opposite) sides toward the center. The women would line up on those 2 sides and start quilting from the center out. As a section was finished the quilt would be unrolled, restretched, and the quilting started again from where they left off. They did beautiful work.