I'm in the process of hand quilting queen without a hoop. I used the basting spray and am careful not to pull the stitches too tight, it's looking pretty good. I find it a lot easier without, when it was in the frame I could only get 1 or 2 stitches at a time on the needle and since I'm doing every piece there are a lot of angles and that was very hard when it was in the frame. I tried a hoop too but just found it much easier without either.