i have a follow up question about hooping, what is the blue tape method? thank you for your help

It is where you use blue painters tape (Scotch makes it) and put it on the underside of your top hoop (so the sticky is up and sticks out the sides of the hoop - in towards the center of the hoop). Then you lay your stabilizer under the top hoop and put the hoops together like normal and stick your item to the tape. I used it for quite a while but then learned the "sticky" method - you stick sticky stabilizer (I use mostly sticky vilene) to the bottom of your top hoop and then put the hoops together and stick the item to the sticky stabilizer. Basically all you do in either case is hoop stabilizer - not the item to be stitched. I find hooping sticky stabilizer works better for me - holds things more securely than just the blue tape. If you are a member of sew forum you should be able to search for "blue tape method". It was posted by neonparot there quite some time ago.