I hand quilt on a Q snap floor frame. It is helpful to have a little slack in the sandwich to hand quilt. 8-10 stitches sounds good to me. The reason I like a frame because on difficult areas (seams) I like to use the "stab" stitch. This is where you quilt stitch by stitch rather than loading your needle. The frame helps to keep the sandwich from moving so the you can poke the needle down from the top, pick up the needle from below the quilt and push it straight back up to the surface to complete a stitch.