When I hand quilt I use a hoop, with saggy quilt as others have recommended. At first I had a hard time trying to quilt and hold the hoop at the same time. Then I got a Hinterberg lap hoop, which has a base so you don't have to hold the hoop, and I love it. I could concentrate on just learning to quilt, and everything was so much easier. Welcome to the wonderful world of quilting!
The reason you need the quilt sandwich to be loose is so you can manipulate both the quilt sandwich and the needle at the same time. You are not only rocking the needle and directing it through the quilt, but you are also flexing the quilt at the same time to help the needle along. It's much easier to flex the quilt than to try to flex the needle! Once I realized that, hand quilting was so much easier! I had a hard time at first because all the work was being done by my dominant hand, holding the needle, and the other hand underneath was doing practically nothing. Once I got that hand working just as hard as the top hand, my stitches were so nice!
Last edited by JustAbitCrazy; 03-09-2012 at 04:51 PM.