Oh, now I get it (I think!).
I guess I would just make some temporary leaders out of fabric and baste them to the runner at top and bottom. I think I could manage to do that 1/4" from the edges top and bottom. I have zippered leaders on my frame, so I would just baste zippers to the opposite ends of the temporary leaders and zip them onto the frames (or you could pin to your frame leaders).
Instead of trying to quilt off the edges, I would plan on using my domestic machine to straight-stitch 1/4" in from the edge all the way around the runner. That could be done before or after quilting on the frame.
If using the Golden Threads paper, I would probably pin the paper to the frame leaders first, then spray baste the runner to the paper before quilting. However, it seems to me this just makes extra work in terms of getting rid of the paper afterwards and the runner would need to be washed in order to get rid of the basting spray.