I don't use anything but my hands. I like to FEEL what I'm doing. I've tried various gloves and hoops and always wind up back in bare hands. The one thing that has helped me most is practice practice practice. And I concur with the other suggestions too, always warm up on a test sandwich, preferably made of the same fabric and batting as the quilt you're about to do. And if it's a large quilt, setting up that extra table space to support it makes a difference. You won't be fighting the weight of the quilt while trying to concentrate on FMQ.