Accents and Interest

Combining different styles and designs can add movement and interest to quilts. One way to accomplish this is to vary the pattern you are quilting. The pictures below show a few examples.

Freehand feathers give a soft edge to these Baptist Fans and add to the beauty of the design.

Feathers inside a Baptist Fan are easy to make and give a welcome rest from stitching the same patern repeatedly.

Notice the area in center top - this is where I attempted to make birds but that will take some work to make it look the way I want it. Maybe someone else can figure it out and show me how!  The same type of technique could easily be used for bows as well. Gotta work on that!

Happy Stitching!

Betty

http://TopAnchorQuilting.com

Doodles gone wild!

Take a look at the work of Joyce Bowers unleashed.

This was her first time using the EZ Arc longarm quilting tool.

 
She just had a ball making arcs on this practice piece and adding in whatever designs came to mind. What fun!

Feathers, clamshells, loops, scrolls, pebbles, anything!
 Don't you just love the look of the clamshells inside the feather arc. Stunning!

Can you imagine these designs fanned across an entire quilt like that. Beautiful.

Thanks, Joyce, for showing us how easy it is to get great results when you set your imagination free, you wild thing!

Find us at http://topanchorquilting.com

Background Fill Around Applique

This is the very first attempt Judy Ross made using the new EZ Arc longarm quilting tool. Don't you just love the way she was able to put Baptist Fans in the background around her applique. Awesome!

How creative and great work, too!

Great job, Judy!

My personal thanks to you for showing us a new way of using the EZ Arc longarm quilting tool!

Betty Bland

http://www.TopAnchorQuilting.com

Baptist Fan longarm quilting tool

After nearly two years developing the Baptist Fan longarm quilting tool, it was finally announced to the public and made available on December 10, 2012. The response has been tremendous and better than we hoped!  YEAH!

What makes this tool unique is the patent-pending TopAnchor system that allows the template to rotate around a stationary anchor post; the template and hopping foot are both moved together at the same time to create the stitching pattern. This is very different from using other longarm templates, which remain stationary while you stitch around them.

All work is done directly in the stitching area with no need to walk behind the machine or reach under the quilt, and no other parts or accessories are needed to make it work.

The Baptist Fan template is the first of several longarm tools using the unique TopAnchor system. Watch for announcements in early January 2013!

The question asked most often is whether these tools can be used with regular sewing machines and the answer is sorry, but no. Since the template and hopping foot both move over a stationary quilt, it can only work with a longarm machine. However, there are other tools on the market for use in machine quilting, and youTube demos of them. 

Update: after extensive testing, we have determined that the Star & Dahlia templates will work for free motion quilting as long as you have a round foot like the hopping foot on a longarm quilting machine. Check out the information on our website here:  http://topanchorquilting.com/collections/templates

We now have a webstore set up at http://TopAnchorQuiltingTools.com and a new Yahoo! users group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TopAnchorQuiltingTools  is open to everyone whether they have the tool or are just interested in seeing how it works.
On facebook: 
https://www.facebook.com/TopAnchorLongarmQuiltingTools?ref=ts&fref=ts.
You can even see the Baptist Fan template used to create a quick and easy continuous Baptist Fan on youTube:  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwgNaIbJqm4&noredirect=1.

Stay tuned! There is much more to come!