Thank you!

mine is 1/4" The part that matters is that you buy clips that will fit on the cord you are getting. Hard to fit a 1/4 cord into and 1/8 inch hole!

Using the cord as a reference is a great idea. Before I put the leader on my top pole I used painters tape on it to mark reference points but it wouldn’t be as much help for lining up across the quilt except to estimate how straight you are. I think I will try the cord on my next quilt.

An update on this one, I am 2/3 done. My free motion quilting is quite awful. I am doing stitch in the ditch with rulers. First time I’ve done anything with rulers and first time stitch in the ditch on long arm. Thank goodness my piecing of this quilt went really well or I would just have to tell my brother to get someone else to make another one. LOL. But I am learning a lot.

Thank you all again for all the helpful suggestions!