A Chubby Heart, a Mystery Quilt Guess, and Some Questions

If you receive the Sew4Home newsletter http://www.sew4home.com/ then you probably saw the chubby heart coaster tutorial in this week's issue.  (Their website has the best tutorials.) I like coasters and mug rugs because I always have a cup of tea or coffee or a glass of wine, so I have them all over the house.  I made a mug rug using the chubby heart pattern.  I embroidered some hearts on one side and made the rug reversible.

Since before Christmas I've been participating in the Christmas Mystery Quilt qal at Erik Homemade Ezine http://www.erikhomemade.typepad.com/  After this week's sewing I have a guess on what the design is of the quilt.  I think we may be making a quilt with a Christmas Tree.  This is all of the sewing so far:

The picture is dark but the only colors are cream, green and red. 

I think Erik will be leading a redwork sewalong soon.  I'll definitely be joining that qal.  

Late last year I was following the free motion quilting tutorial of Christina from A Few Scraps http://www.afewscraps.blogspot.com/.  I learned enough to give me confidence in doing meandering quilting and I love doing loops.  Well, I made this quilt last year but never quilted it, until now.  I've been working on each block separately, and have only two more to go. 

After this quilt I have another quilt top I made last year that needs to be quilted.  That one I will do in a very simple way. Then I won't have any unfinished projects needing quilting, and that's good because I'm involved in three qal's right now and hope to join in with Sue from Quilt Times in her mystery quilt.  And I'm sure that's not the end of my quilt making. 

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Now for the questions.  When you are quilting the quilt on your sewing machine, what have you found to be the best way for you to control the fabric you are not quilting?  I have tried rolling it up, and it helps somewhat, but I'm wondering if there's a better way, other than sending out the quilt, which may be my next course.  Does anyone use the roller clips that are sold to hold the fabric together and do they work?  Are there alternatives?  I'm open to suggestions and appreciate your help.

My next question is on binding.  You may have noticed the lump on my mug rug where the ends of the binding meet.  How do I avoid the lump? 

Hope everyone is well.  God Bless You.