It doesn't really matter which hoop you use. The last piece is embroidered at least in the middle hoop, only one of the pieces, if I remember correctly called for the large hoop. I found it to be much easier to load the piece with the fusible batting attached to the underside of the hoop, it gave me much less problems with thread breakage. I did have to slow the machine down to get all those satin stitches to work. The trickiest part is sewing the previous parts to the part you just finished in the hoop. It may take a bit of maneuvering to get the last couple lined up, because the tree is so large by then ... or maybe I was just so tired. I think I would prefer to use the middle size hoop by the end, when I used the large it was challenging to keep the pieces lined up so that when it was joined there were no gaps.