Circle Lord v Hartley Fence

[quiltermidwife]

You are going to have to forgive me here if this sounds a little un-informed- that's because I am!

What do you see as the main differences between the Circle Lord and the Hartley Fence and which do you prefer.

My nearest dealer thinks the Hartley Fence is the better product but that is not the general feeling I get from the number of posts here.

Thanks for your help

Chris

[pigletaz]

mrsbishwit (had) both systems I believe, so she probably can give you a good idea of the differences. I've had a class on the Hartley Fence. It is very impressive, but you're right..there are a number of posts about the Circle Lord. I think both systems do circles, etc. I'm leaning towards the Circle Lord after seeing the results posted here in pictures over the last 3 months.

[Mary Beth]

Circle Lord all the way!!

[BethDurand]

I have the CL, and I love it to pieces! I'm also biased, so that's probably not a lot of help. Good luck in your decision.

Beth

[mrsbishwit]

As Renae had said I have owned both (just sold my Hartley Fence little over a week ago). They are both good tools so what ever you decide you won't go wrong.

Just like picking out your long arm the tools you choose to use with it are a personal choice as well. You need to ask yourself a few questions to help you decide which is a better fit for you.

1)price, what's your budget

2)how much of the work do you actually want to do and how much of it do you want your tool to do

3)are you a creative person that can look at negative space within a quilt and know exactly what would look good in that space and be able to manipulate the tool to create it. Or are you the creative challenge type that would rather have a tool that is a no brainer type of tool where the designs are pretty obvious and requires less thought.

So based on my own observation over the past 2 years is this...

The Hartley Fence is the more reasonable priced tool (between the two of these) it can do circles, concentric circles, circle medalions, baptist fans, clamshells, lines, crosshatching etc... just with the basic set up for just around $500.00 The basic instructions that come with the Fence is lacking in my opinion but for additional $ you can purshase Myrna's wookbook and or DVD that are fantastic and will walk you through all of the basic stuff and set up. Just like having her in your own home for a private lesson

For an additional $100.00 you can also purchase the cookie cutter attatchment that will alow you to use the cookie cutter shapes that you can purchase seperatly for about $45-$65. These shapes will allow you to place shapes inside the quilt design such as rope borders, triangles rectangles, ovals, hearts etc...there are quite a few catogories to choose from but the down side to these are that you really need to be creative with them and most will require you to be fairly good at custom quilting so you can make the shapes into something special with various background fills and techniques. If you like the look of spirals you won't be able to do these with the Hartley Fence. And if you are creatively challenged you may find this tool frustrating. It does require a fair amount of practice & creativity to be able to really use this tool to it's fullest capacity. Plus it doesn't come out with new products alot. But if you really want to see what this tool is truely capable of go to Myrna's website and take a look in her portfolio to see her stunning quilts http://www.aquilterschoice.com/portfolio.htm So basically with this tool you are only limited by your own imagination.

The Circle Lord or CL for short is a bit pricier at about $600.00 for the basic set-up and comes with a stylis that attatches to your machine, which will allow you to do circles, concentric circles, circle medalions, baptist fans, clamshells etc...the initial set up does not allow you to do lines or crosshatching. But for additional $ you can build on the basic set up by buying additional templates that will allow you to do lines, crosshatching, various background fills, various block designs seperate from the basic circle medalions, hearts, stars, ovals, diamonds, SPIRALS, concentric squares, spiral squares, curved crosshatching, a variety of edge to edge designs ect...It is easy to use right out of the box and requires less imagination and requires less practice than the one above. New products are comming out all of the time and you can even buy it on a no interest payment plan over a 12 month period. You can go to the CL website and click on the links in the link areas to see what others have done with the circle lord tools/templates to see if it would be a better fit for you. http://www.loriclesquilting.com/

And my personal opinion is this...

again they are both fantastic tools to use with your long arm machine but the better value in the long run do to the versatility and the new products that come out on a regular basis, and the one that requires the least amount of practice to use right out of the box ,and requires less creative imagination to getstunning results in the finished quilt is the Circle Lord.

Plus Michael and Kay the owners/ inventor of the CL is always available if there is a question or problem and is always open for suggestions for future products.

[Guest Linda S]

No comparison! I had both the Hartley Fence and the Circle Lord. I sold the Hartley Fence and now have almost everything Circle Lord makes. The Circle Lord RULES! So easy to use, so precise, and the designs are terrific. Michael keeps coming up with new ones to tempt us.

Linda

[Joy]

CIRCLE LORD IS THE BEST SO EASY

[MarieBrewer]

I bit the bullet and ordered the swirls template. It only took about 4-5 quilts and it is paid for. I sometimes think it's so easy I should be able to train a monkey to work for me. Hmmmm--maybe I could train him to do the dishes and clean the house too. Have never used the Hartley. I can't decide which template to get next, Square Dance or Baptist Fan.

[Joy]

Marie

Baptist Fans are great, but number of different patterns you can do on the zigzag template is unbelievable

[matildanme]

You can do smaller circles on the CL and the templates are fantastic. Lots of creative fun to be had as most of the templates do more that one pattern. The CL system is a quality product, very sturdy and I feel more in control using it. I think the templates may become family heirlooms lol

I Love my CL and Michael and Kay are great people to deal with.

Cheers

[belquilt]

Joann and Linda,

I am so glad Chris asked this question, as I too, am trying to make the decision of which one to get. I am leaning towards CL right now because I am not as creative as people that use Hartley Fence. Since the two of you both have Liberty's, are there any templates that you just cant use or are limited to which designs on the template you can use since we only have 13 inches of stitch space? I knew LInda loved the CL!!! And Joann you answer was perfect.

Also what actually comes with the CL ? How long was the learning curve for the two of you?

Do you use just the single templates or do you have some that are like a Panto?

I am not too good a straight line pantos, but the all over pantos are a little more forgiving. I think the CL would be fun to use.

Thanks... I see an early Christmas present from DH coming soon!!!:cool:

[lyonden]

CIRCLE LORD RULES without a doubt. I of course am totally biased. I just couldn't quilt without this tool. They have a customer that is considered legally blind (yes she can some). No problem for her. What does that tell you?

[ramona-quilter]

Hi Chris,

I bought my CL at last year's innovations. I had the Fence, I had the Fence workbook and even took the Fence class from Myrna. But the CL was a much easier set-up for me. My DH put it together in less than 2 hours including installing the stylus. The unit lifts off easily by releasing the brake. You can hang it for storage or lay it flat under your table. I also store my templates flat under my table.

There is no training curve. The book explains it all. You stick the stylus in the groove, take a couple of locking stitches and off you go; lock stitches at the end, drag thread to next position. If the next position is off a ways, I do trim the thread or my mahcine cathces on it underneath.

The Giant templates are 3 pieces that snap together, though I have used just 2 when I had a narrow Baptist Fan quilt. The big ones are pricey, $450 or 550 but like Joann said, these pay for themselves in saved time and happy customers.

I have the Aztec, Stella, Starz, Feather wreat and border, Large Spirals (square and circle), Tilez, and Crosshatch.

The giant one: zigzag (with lips) and the Baptist Fans.

My next is Spirals. But I have not yet seen the square Dance.

Hey, Michael, I can't see a photo of the square dance on your site.

Good luck in your decision. Let us know what you decide.

[Bekah]

Well from a pretty challenged person when it comes to gadgets, I have ghe Circle Lord and I love it. I still am challenged when it comes to setting some of the designs up over the quilt, but I am taking the class at Innovations for help. Michael and Kay are wonderful and always there to answer questions no matter what day it is.

[circlelord]

Hi,

The new Square Dance, formally know as The Funky Chicken,

can be seen on the Circle Lord News .

It is listed on the Circle Lord price page.

Cheers,

Michael

[Guest Linda S]

Beth - Linda's right - there is virtually no learning curve. The Circle Lord is so easy to use. For the Liberty, if you get the giant templates, in some cases you will only be able to use one of the two rows of the pattern. I don't find this a problem though. Even though I need to roll the quilt a bit more often, it's still just as easy to use and the quilting goes so fast. I own almost all of the Circle Lord templates. There are a few new ones I need to catch up on, but I'll get there!

Linda

[mrsbishwit]

Beth;

I have found that just about everything that CL makes is compatable for the mid size machines like the Liberty/Discovery.

The templates that I have so far are (I bought my initial set up with the great 12 mo payment plan)...

1) The basic CL set up

2) Featherz Wreath

3) Featherz Border

4) Mini Aztec (great for smaller block sizes)

5) Aztec

6) Stella

7) Ginko

8) Starz

9) Spirals

10) Curved Crosshatching

11) Lg. Crosshatching

12) Concentric Squares

13) Fan Clam (made especially for the mid size machines) on one side it has the Baptist Fan on it and the other side has the clamshell on it

14) Rope

15) Swirls

The last 3 are the ETE templates that look like the rolled panto patterns when stitched out. The Swirls template originally was geared toward the larger machines but Micheal made a revised template so that us Liberty owners were able to do a complete pass without advancing the machine...

The smaller templates 2-12 that I mentioned above are compatable to the mid size machines with the excemption of the featherz border template (only because you need to turn the quilt in order to have the feathers line up properly because the template measures 15" long vs the 12" that we need for our machines

Also the concentric squares template I found was good when doing the squares for in borders that are 12" or smaller on our machines but If you are using them in a larger border (I had a 14" border once) and I had to fudge the outer squares because the design wouldn't line up properly when I advanced the quilt a little to continue the design...but honestly how many times are you going to get a border that is that large and the customer wants concentric squares in that border, LOL as far as using the Concentric Squares in the block designs in the center of the quilt they work awesome!! quick, easy, no problem.

So other than the 2 times that I mentioned I have had no problem with these templates working on my Liberty and honestly they still do work, it just required a little extra manuvering on my part.

After I finish paying off the above I plan on purchasing the following,

1) Zig Zag (ETE desins)

2) Square Dance (funky chicken) ETE design

3) sm crosshatching (great for sashings and background fill in blocks)

4) mini clam (great for sashings and background fill in blocks)

5) sq spirals (great for blocks and borders)

6) Heartz (great to use in borders, blocks and sashings)

7) Diamondz (would be great for borders or as a filler between the medalion designs in the body of the quilt)

8) Tiles (lines & waves) great for background fills, borders, blocks, heck just about anything, lol

[belquilt]

Linda,

Thanks for the input and its good to hear from you again. I knew you had used this extensively and would have some great input.

Joann,

Thank you also for you input and sharing your experiences with the different templates.

It's so good to hear everyone's experiences with this stuff!!!

Okay, now I have to decide which templates to start out with????? I love the idea of the 12 month payment plan.... YOU CAN'T BEAT THAT!! I will study the templates UNLESS you ladies want to give some suggestions!!!

Isn't this so much fun??? As for the expense... I know some women that spend the amount it costs for this on two pairs of shoes and a purse! Gotta keep this stuff in prospective, you know?

Thanks again ladies for your input!!