When I do a good sized quilt, I don't worry about getting the whole thing through the harp. I picture the quilt in quarters. The top right corner is quilted first, quilting from the center out. The rest of the quilt is puddled on the table around my machine on the left side and in my lap. Once the top quarter is done, I turn the quilt one quarter (counter clockwise) and work on the next quarter. Don't worry about the rest of the quilt and just work on what is in the harp.
Rolling or packaging the quilt sounds good in theory but it just makes it heavier and unwieldy to more.