farmer623

I quilt without a hoop at all. I either baste with safety pins or have several times basted with dissolving thread. As long as you baste enough, it works fine.

#1piecemaker

Of course it can be done. I've quilted several King size quilts in mine. I just lay my backing out in the floor face down, put battig on, then put top on face up and pin with those quilting saftey pins. then just place your hoop in the middle of your quilt. Be sure to make sure you don't have any wrinkles in the back and then just stretch as you go. Once you get the hang of it, its a piece of cake. Welcome to the board.

JNCT14

I can't hand quilt unless I use what I call a 'running backstitch' because my wrist and hands hurt too much after a while. The running backstitch does make a continuous line on the back but I figure the quilt police have better things to do. The stitch doesn't require a hoop.

I do agree that having hand work to do while spending time with DH is great - so I actually hand piece my quilts! Then I quilt them on the machine which goes pretty fast. I also do applique while in front of TV (most programs are lousy anyway or DH is watching sports - snzzzzzzzzzz...lol). The Celtic Illusions was hand pieced and machine quilted on my BabyLok - the tabletopper was hand quilted using the running back stitch.

Karyn

I have tried several hoop types 1. square pvc frame about 13", 2. large round heavy hoop. Both caused me much discomfort when I tried handquilting a queen sized. My solution is a pvc frame that is about 2'x3'. It is small enough that I can just place it in front of my chair in the living room with hubby. This seems to work very well for me. I love hand quilting.

tepee

Basting is very important. Check out this video on hand basting. This is great. Try and save the link because I had some trouble finding it. The link was broken, but this site should work.
tp
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/ha...-p1/3809738806

Happy Treadler

LOVE the Barnett hoop. Best investment I've made in a long time. AND, I've discovered even another use for it. Since I've been learning more and more here about different techniques of hand quilting, and learned many people mark their quilts as they go, I've started also to do that. Last night I was on the couch and was moving my hoop to the next block. I realized it needed to be marked, so I looked around for the kid's lap board to have something to write on. THEN I thought, I can flip my hoop over because it has a solid bottom and THAT can be my lap board!! I was so excited because now I don't even need to get up. It's the perfect size because I'm marking the size that I'm quilting. I just take my work out, flip it over, do my marking, flip back over and re-insert into the hoop. Voila! The only problem I could foresee is if you're marking larger areas, but at the same time I think it may still work because you only mark a piece at a time. Just had to share!

Yeah, it's kinda silly that something so simple could get me so excited. ha ha 8-)

gmcsewer

If you want to hand quilt and do not want to pin baste or use spray, some machine quilters will stretch the quilt and baste it for you at a nominal cost. The one I just finished was done this way. I use the plastic tubes that have connectors at the corners and remove it each time I put the quilt down for the night so as not to stretch the fabric where the hoop would be.

honeybee_2000

where did you get your hoop? It doesnt sound like a large hoop like Im using.

Cottage Dee

Do you find that the spray gets a little difficult to needle? I would love to do that. Basting is hard on my back, too. But I do sit in my rocking chair with my feet on the ottoman....then my little 15 lb dog jumps up onto my legs (we are in Michigan, and it is cold). I then quilt whatever I have on my list of ufo's. I do use the pvc pipe quilt hoop that I got from Joann's a few years ago. I have a Grace 14" lap hoop, and another wooden one, but I prefer the pvc pipe one. Just a matter of taste, I think. But both my little Annie (schitzu) and I are warm these days as I work on the current quilt. Everyone is right about doing any size quilt. I hand quilted a Queen size called Quilted Diamonds by Linda Franz... lots of quilting in those small areas. But I did it, and now all that I have left to do is the scalloped binding, which scares me more than a little!

Grandma Libby

Speaking of handquilting, does anyone know how to MARK the fan-like design like old timers used to..? I know they used a pencil with a string attached and drew the lines about 1/2 inches apart. How do you do that and still get those parallel lines even?