For a full size quilt I used a 20 inch round hoop that can either be used on a stand or on its own. Prepped by thread basting as the quilt will be in an out of the hoop quite a lot. I used Sharon Schamber's method. The only difficult came when doing the borders/edges. I stitched a bit of waste fabric around the edges so there would be something to anchor into the hoop. Some hoops have a bar attachment to do edges. There are also border hoops which are sort of D-Shaped.
HettyB