I had been taught to do my needlepoint by my mom and the nuns at school. I never had done them with
any hoop. Just lay the material on your left hand index and grab he rest with the other fingers. and with the right you will do the cross stitching with the needle color floss that you intend to do and the I copy from the pattern or the book to the material that all. Good luck

I have seen people run long designs sideways in a frame. As long as you keep your stitches going in the right direction when it is right side up, I guess that would work. I have a long width one to do, but will probably use a hoop.

Unless this is going over the sofa, you can make it smaller. 18-ct makes it 34" x 11". I might even cut out some design on both right & left sides, if I were stitching this.

A hoop will work. Roll & clip the extra fabric. Also, ask customer service if they can cut your fabric the full bolt width by the inches you need -- guessing 18" to make a half yard. If they can't, Nordic Needle still sells by the inch, which is good for long, skinny patterns.

When I do long patterns over 24 inches long I fold the fabric up a couple of times and hold it with my quilting safety pins. I always use a plastic and metal tension hoop that is 7 inches in diameter for any project I do.

Hey Syagel, where do you find your tension hoops? I have one and I love it to death, however, found one recently at Hobby Lobby and it doesn't work well at all.

I got mine at JoAnn Fabrics many years ago. I have about 6 or 8 of them. You can also get them online at 123Stitch.com, and ABCStitchTherapy.com. These are just two places. They are on sale at both sites and come in 3 different sizes. I tried the hoops with the screws a couple of times and ended up throwing them away. I only use the spring tension ones now, and have been stitching for over 30 years. The hoops are by Darice.

For the life of me, I don't seem to be able to get my fabrics in the tension hoops. How do you do this, syagel? It is so frustrating, but I used to be able to do it years ago. What's up with this? I have tried soft fabrics, stiff fabrucs, different types and different counts. The hoop just pops off! Help....

Su Pitt I wash all my fabrics in my washer with soap and fabric softener before I use them and air dry them. I just lay the fabric down and push the metal part into the fabric and work my hands around it and push hard. 95% of the time I don't have a problem. A couple times it was harder to get it to stay in, but once I got working it was all right. Happy Thanksgiving.