margecam52

There are as many ways to quilt, as there are people who are making quilts. I prewash dark fabrics for a quilt, if there are darks that I know will bleed. I test by taking a damp, white square of fabric and rub the edge of the dark fabric...if color comes off...I prewash all the fabrics for that project...of course lights & darks are washed seperately.....if nothing rubs off, I don't prewash. It's a matter of preference. Now, I was gifted two peoples stashes of older fabrics...they were dusty & a few had critter marks on them...so those all were prewashed and put into bins. They are not ironed...I'll iron if I use that fabric, not before...life is too short.
Always pull the bobbin thread to the top & hold it until you take a stitch or two...but....if you use a "spider" (piece of folded fabric at the start and stop of a line of stitches for making the top (not quilting it)...then you can eliminate hangning onto the threads. This also keeps the end of the piece(s) from getting caught in the feed dogs....for quilting, always bring up the thread.
Rolling the excess is also a preference...when I quilted on my home machine, I rolled & tossed the excess over my shoulder...worked ok, not great. Try both ways...see what feels better and gives you more control.
I rarely make bias binding (again my preference)...I make bias if the quilt has curved/scalloped edges, otherwise...straight is it. Now, sometimes, if the curves/scallops are gentle, I just cut the strips width of fabric...this provides a small amout of give, and works for those gentle curves. For straight edges, I try to cut along the length of the fabric (as the selvage runs)...this has NO give....and I like that stability.
Basting...I agree if you are doing your quilting on a home machine. If you quilt as you go, or it's a small item...you could get by if doing straight lines...but basting will probably result in neater quilt lines. For pot holders, small items, I don't baste....anything larger than a placemat, I baste...if doing on my home machine...on the longarm, I don't baste.
I started quilting on a Singer 2662 machine I got on the AS IS table at Walmart...still use that machine. You have a good machine...don't have to have an expensive machine...I have a friend with an old Brother machine...feed dogs don't drop...she taped a playing card over them, set the stitch as low as it would go, put on the darning foot saved from a newer machine...Worked great. Setting the stitch to zero...helps keep the feed dogs from moving, the playing card keeps the feed dogs from snagging the backing.
For a table when I was quilting on my home machine...I used the table that was for my mom's treddle...and pushed the kitchen table into a corner, the sewing table to the right of the kitchen table...and that is how I supported the queen size quilts I made my kids. Worked great!

I politely listen and even take notes of suggestions I'm given (take what this person says are rules as suggestions)...and then evaluate later, try a few of them...see if they do/don't work for you, and then toss those that don't work.

Hope this helps!