My leaders are stuck on the poles and I pin the backing to them. Then I lock the quilting machine into a straight horizontal line and use it to attach the batting to the backing fabric. Then I pin my top--matching it up to the straight line.
I know others use zippers, water soluble thread & hand baste and there is a hand-held chain stitch machine that Walgreen's used to carry that one lady I know of used to attach the backing to her leaders.
You can manually baste with your quilt machine by tacking or setting the speed very slow and moving it quickly across.