There are so many great suggestions here. I enjoy looking at the shared experiences of others and see where I fit in along the shared process. I would like to add a couple of ideas. I use scraps of rubberized shelf liner to move my quilt along-one under the fingers of each hand. They move nicely and I can just move my hand off if I need to make adjustments in anything-no gloves to take off or put on. I have also made practice pieces with geometric figures on them to analyze which directions I sew best-shows where I need to work on. For instance I sew backwards better than going to my left-so I practice going to the left. I also find that if I move the quilt into my lap from the flat surface behind the machine I have the best stitches because I don't have the drag of the bulk that is in my lap trying to keep tension off of it as I lift it to the level of the desk top. I like to compare the quality of my newest project to those I have done before.