The throat space on my little Bernina is 6 1/4." I've quilted all of my own quilts and have done up to twin size quilts on it. I get the part that I'm working on, nice and flat on the machine bed. Then push everything else out and away from the machine. I use my body to hold what's in front of me. Rolling the quilt up works for long straight lines, but not so much for free-motion.
You might try the "Divide and Conquer" or "Cotton Theory" methods for quilting on your smaller machine. With these methods, you quilt smaller sections then sew the sections together.
I got a longarm 2 years ago, but still quilt some things on my little Bernina.