Thanks to you both. I was going to spray baste but thought I might pin it since trying it without a hoop - but maybe I will spray baste!

Hi there! Definitely, you do not have to use a hoop if you baste the quilt very well. Baste,baste,baste.
I've even quilted a quilted by hand that was spray basted. Turned out quite nice. Good luck.

It's episode 203 and I misspelled her name it's Suzanne Marshall.

Thanks, Rita! I will check out Susan's show.

You don't have to use a hoop when hand quilting - I don't. But you do have to make sure that you have basted properly. Susan Marshall shows how she does it in her show on TQS ( sorry, can't remember the number now.) Good luck.

Hi All! I'm not that great at FMQ yet and plan on just doing stitch-in-the ditch around my squares and maybe also placing an X in the centers. But I need a quilting design in the borders (they are 4 1/2 inches wide (like my squares) so I really need to do something with them) and plan on hand quilting those. My question is - is it really necessary to use a hoop when hand quilting? If yes, is there a particular type I should use (buy)? Thanks!