I don't use a hoop at all. Just baste and quilt in my lap. Quite a few years ago I made a pretty useful floor frame by taking the top off an old card table and wrapping the metal top frames with fabric so I could clamp my quilt to it. It worked fine but now that I have severe back problems I can't use it any more. Lately my daughter has taken up machine quilting and does such a beautiful job that I am sending all my quilts to her.

An Aunt Becky, to answer your question, is a bent piece of metal which fits over the tip of your underneath quilting finger and catches the needle as it comes from the top and helps you to turn it round to go back into the fabric, and head back to the top. It takes a while to learn how to use it, but it surely helps save your finger tips. I use a large, wide hoop to quilt in. I have a hoop with a stand also and use it sometimes. And, I have quilted using just the quilt in my lap; it just depends on the back and how it feels that day.

I have a good plastic hoop with a wing nut to tighten. It is, I believe 14 inches across. I love it. It sometimes is a bit tough to maneuver when the quilt a fairly large one, but I just put most of the weight on a table and everything is fine. I have tightened it to the extreme with no lasting effects on the fabric.

I have really enjoyed all the information on this thread as after Christmas I plan to try hand quilting. Good luck with your class, teddy'smom:)

I'm really encouraged by all the positive remarks. Believe I'll be able to master the quilting hoop and I'm excited about getting started. My class begins on the 3rd Thurs in Jan running from 10 - 3. So should be able to learn a lot and have time to practice while the "teacher" is still there.

I must admit that I do not do a lot of hand quilting because of my wrists, however, when I quilted my daughter's full size quilt, I used a 14" hoop, but I quilted it at my old, very large kitchen table. The quilt was supported, taking some of the strain off my arms, and although I was leaning forward slightly, I found it to be as comfortable as sewing. Plus my large table held the bulk of the quilt, and Mischief (our kitty at the time) would lie on the quilt to watch me and occasionally try to catch the needle, although he only did that a couple of times. I know some of you might be aghast at letting a cat lie on the quilt, however, when my daughter used the quilt her cat slept on her bed, and no one in the family was allergic then.

I use a 16" round hoop but I also use an oval hoop for borders for all my hand quilting, I use a hoop with a lap stand if the quilt is larger than a lap quilt to take the weight off my legs. the difference between quilting and embroidering with a hoop is that you keep a hand under the hoop to make sure the needle goes thru all layers, that's why I prefer a smaller hoop.

I use both a floor and a lap hoop. My floor hoop tilts so that I don't have to bend way over on it and has all kind of adjustments to make it comfortable for me. But I love sitting on the couch with a quilt on my lap and quilting. I use a
14 in lap hoop and a 16 in floor hoop. Shop around a little to see what's out there. You may end up buying a couple of hoops before you find one that you really like. Be patient!

Once, when I was working on my floor hoop and the quilt was large and the over hang was laying on the carpet, my two corgi puppies were taking a nap on the part of the quilt that was on the floor which they frequently did. After a while, I thought "boy, those puppies have been asleep a long time." When I looked, they weren't asleep. They were quietly taking my quilt sandwich apart. I think this is what caused their life long addiction to ripping batting out of the stuffed toys they get.

Aunt Becky is a metal piece used on the under side of the quilt

sort of an under thimble (it saves your finger tip when you catch the needle.

I have the Grace lap hoop in the 14" size. I love that it sits in my lap and pivots any direction on a ball. I can lean back into the sofa back and don't have to lean over and stress my back. I took a class with the Thimblelady and use her techniques and thimbles, but I also use the stick-on pads called thimble-it for sewing on binding and such hand work.