My first suggestion is to measure to where you want the quilt to lay. There are different sizes of frames so you might be limited with who can quilt your quilt. You want to make the quilter's job easier to mount the quilt onto their frame. Pressing and clip of thread just makes the quilt look nicer. Do you want a black thread to show thru where a white section? Maybe you should watch a u-tube video on "mounting a quilt on a LA frame"so you understand what a LAQ does and many of your questions will be answered.