Welcome and congratulations on experiencing all the joys (and some of the disappointments) of quilting. You've been given good advice so far. I quilt small items myself, but anything larger than a baby quilt goes to a long-armer, so therefore, I do the "quilt by check." The cost of that limits how many large quilts I make, but it is worth it to me, because I don't enjoy neck/shoulder/back pains that come with hefing a large quilt through my domestic machine.
So you may decide to do that, too, or after watching You Tube videos, you may figure out a way to make the sandwiching and quilting more pleasurable for you.