Slow Sunday Stitching -- Look at My Hoop Edition

I found ANOTHER red flower that needs stitched.  Seriously... I think this is the last one.  Here it is on my kitchen table shown in my white oval hoop.  Kathy at Kathy's Quilts added the fun of a photo challenge with the link-up this week.  The challenge is to take a picture of your hand-stitch project in the hoop.  So here it is:

 

My favorite hoop is a plastic, white 4.5" x 9" hoop.  I like it because I like to hold the small ends while stitching across the almost 9".  It's also funny because I just started slow stitching last year (as a grown-up).  I stitched when I was a kid up until about 10 years old.  I lost interest about when my grandmother (who was my sewing and crafting role model) passed away.  Now I think of her nearly every time that I stitch.  This was not her hoop.  I got this from a "free" box at a garage sale.  I also like it for small projects like this crib quilt because when I fold my project around it, it fits nicely into my school bag for when I go to work as a substitute teacher.  It doesn't take up a lot of room.

Here's a picture of it without my project on my old towel that is stained and ripped.  Funny... this is my favorite towel from my aunt.  She too has passed away.  I keep it next to my sewing machine and use it for ironing.  I don't see a brand name on it.  But it does have "THIS SIDE UP" on the bottom half.  I liked that because I totally forgot how to stitch the 40 years that I did not stitch.  Now I got it.

 

I also like these two hoops.  I have more than one to-go bag.  The blue one I got in the same "free" box as the white hoop.  The wooden hoop was my grandma's.  It doesn't have the screw thing on it.  But if I use it, I can easily take the one from the blue one.  I also have a box of hoops in the other house where my longarm is.  There's at least a dozen hoops in there of all different sizes.  I got that box at a garage sale for $5.  I knew I'd use them someday...  Thanks to this group, I am inspired to hand stitch while waiting on others.

 

 

I also have some metal hoops that were my grandma's and my original metal hoop that she (or my mom) gave me.  I don't use them anymore because they left a ring on one project that was a WIP.  I don't remember if it was rust or not.  It was just a ring...  I don't remember the project.  I'm pretty sure it's just something that was thrown away when the family was cleaning...  If I had that project now I would have probably made a shadow box of it and put it in my sewing room. 

 

Linking up with  Kathy at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.