Originally Posted by familyfun

Congratulations on the find. I dont have any advice about the quilting but I will tell you what I use for hand quilting.
I have a 14 and 24 inch cheap wood hoop. I also bought a poly laphoop but only use the top. I love the way the polly doesnt snag fabric. I bought a small rectange pvc hoop that just snaps onto the fabric. I also have a large pvc hoop the I got from Joanns several years ago with a 40% off coupon. Last night I received my Grace Z44 hand quilting frame
This thing is Awsome!!! and HUGE so I dont recomend for a apartmentt unless you dont want a couch LOL ...
I generally do only queen and king quilts and I HATE basting. I have never found a method that works well for me.

1. Wood hoop mine are cheap and didnt like the feel of them. Also my batting would sometimes stick to the wood.

2. Polly hoop I Love the feel and the way the poly lap hoop fits on the fabric. When I am quilting something big I sit at the table and have the quilt on it. It sometimes is hard to get it all bunched up so I can get my hand under and I have to keep turning the hoop because I can only comfortably quilt in 2 directions. I would recomend this kind of hoop for smaller jobs

3. Rectangle PVC Hoop (I think mine is 10 x 14 or something like that. I like this one but sometimes it seems difficult to get the fabric loose enough in the frame. When you snap on the sides it wants to pull the fabric tighter and the corner get weird.

4. PVC Floor Frame. I would recommend this for larger projects however, When your done you just pull the pieces apart and put it back in the box. However, even though the legs are adjustable I could never seem to get it in a comfortable position to quilt very long. I seem to want to have my quilt more on a tilt with the back higher than what it would go. Also I am tall (almost 5'9'') so when I put the front down and the back high I would have to lower my chair and then my knees would hurt because I was sitting to low.

5. Grace Z44 floor frame I just put this together last night and have not started using it yet. So far It seems like it is going to be awsome. It goes from crib to king with no basting. YEAH!!! Also has numerous positions, (you can even quilt standing up. My Husband came home from work last night and said it looked like we had a combine sitting in the middle of the room. But like I said it is HUGE I have it set up for king size and right now it is sitting right in the middle of my front room.. I have to do some serious furniture rearranging and get rid of a chair so I have a wall big enough for it.

After my long winded response I would say my favorite option for smaller projects would be the poly hoop. I wouldnt get anything smaller than 14 inches. I bought mine at Joanns with coupon and it was like 15-20 $$ but you still would have to baste. I prefer spray basting but sometimes I do thread baste.
Good luck and have fun.

Originally Posted by patchsamkim

You can use a hoop...either in your lap, or on a stand to do your hand quilting....or you can even quilt without a hoop...that is what I do...as long as you baste or pin it well before quilting, a hoop is not a necessity.