Marti Michel has a great book in which she breaks down machine quilting into quilting just a part of it a a time. You can either plan ahead and do a sort of quilt as you go - or finish your top and backing, sandwich it and then remove the outer thirds of the batting, so you don't have to wrestle with the entire batting while you're quilting.You quilt the center third first. It REALLY makes a difference. It's a piece of cake to reattach the batting and finish quilting the outer thirds after you finish the center third.