Hello, can anyone tell me what these huge wooden hoops are used for? My friend went to a garage sale recently and took a photo of these huge hoops hanging up in the person's barn.

She took the photo and sent it it me to ask if I knew what they were or what they were used for. The guy selling everything didn't know. I think it was just a house clearance after someone had passed.

Of course I have seen smaller hoops for embroidery. I remember doing little projects with my own grandmother when I was a kid. But these hoops were huge. Maybe more than 3 feet across. So does anyone know what these huge wooden hoops were used for?

Looking closer at her photo, the large hoop doesn't have the two pieces. I haven't done any embroidery since I was a child, but I do remember you sort of had two wooden hoops with a piece of material clamped in between. If I am remembering correctly. Then you pull the material tight and clamp down on it, when it is taught. But the hoops my grandmother had were all approximately 8 inches across or smaller. Nothing like this sort of size.

And it doesn't make sense, to me, to being doing embroidery on this scale. Wouldn't the fabric be all floppy in the middle and make it really difficult to work on. To me it would still make sense to have a smaller hoop and keep moving the piece, if you were working on something larger.

Looking again at the picture, the hoop on the right side, does have the inner hoop. So are these large hoops actually for embroidery? Or are they for something else?

Would be interesting to find out. My friend said if she could find an answer, she might go back and see of she can buy them. Then we could have a go at making something interesting.

Thanks in advance
Meg