Welcome to the boards! My machine has a 6 1/2" (approx) throat & is hard to quilt large quilts. It's doable but take a lot of manipulating of the quilt. I now generally only make baby & lap size quilts mainly for that reason. I can't afford to send my quilts out for quilting so I do them at home on my domestic sewing machine. I am in the process of piecing blocks for a large, king size quilt for myself and am planning on using the Quilt As You Go method for that when I am finished with the blocks. That is the method where you piece a block & then make the sandwich with the batting & backing & then quilt that one block. When you have all your blocks made, you are done with the front, batting, backing & quilting. All you have to do to finish it is put on a border (if you want one) and bind it.
I don't like making the sandwich as I have to crawl on the floor to do it & that is not fun at my age.
I do use a spray adhesive sometimes to help keep everything together before I pin baste it. I also stretch the backing & tape it to the floor before I put the batting on top of it. That seems to help keep it from getting puckers & bunching up in areas. I have gone to our local senior center & used some of their big fold up tables to sandwich my quilt so I don't have to crawl on the floor. They let me use the tables for free. Your church or library, etc. my let you use their tables also. You will find that after the quilt is washed you won't see as many mistakes. I've also learned to try to match my thread to the back instead of the top as the back shows more of your quilting.
Between this board, you tube videos & friends you will be just fine in your quilting adventure. We love pictures here & would really like to see that first quilt you made if you have the capability of taking & posting a picture.