Whether you are floating one project or tackling a multiple-hooped project like a quilt, your favorite embroidery room tool just may be an ordinary flat-head thumb tack. My friend, Marjorie Busby of b-quilts.com, showed me this trick and it has come in handy on many occasions, especially when hooping multiple positions of the same design.

Start by hooping your stabilizer and drawing the centering cross hairs on it.

Push a flat-head thumb tack up through the bottom of the hooped stabilizer at the center of the cross hairs.

Draw cross hairs on the item you wish to embroider to identify the center of the design. Place the hoop on a flat surface and gently press the center of the cross hair of the shirt, etc., onto the tack in the center of the cross hair on the hooped stabilizer.

You can place a piece of thick foam over the point of the thumb tack to keep the shirt/quilt from lifting off while you position it. Make sure that the cross hairs of the shirt/quilt are lined up properly with the cross hairs marked on the hooped stabilizer. Having a foam "cap" on the thumb tack allows you to rotate the item you are embroidering as you are lining up the centering marks.

Once centered, add a bit of temporary spray adhesive to the back of the item to help hold it in place on the stabilizer. Using a sticky stabilizer is another good alternative.

When everything is centered, place the hoop on your embroidery machine and run a basting stitch to hold the item securely in the hoop. Wonder Clips work really well to keep fabric attached to the side of your hoop and out of the embroidery field, especially with shirts.