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Golden Anchor Quilting

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Sewing & Quilting Classes

Beginners - Experts Welcome!

Ages 6-100+ Welcome!

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Free Motion Mastery with RaNae Merrill 9:00am - 5:00pm



Want to learn to do free-motion quilting but don’t know where to start? Can you do a few simple patterns but you want to expand your creativity? Have you taken other classes and failed? Are you afraid you’ll ruin that beautiful top you spent weeks piecing?

This is the class for you!

RaNae's unique teaching system and specialized tools guide you step-by-step through simple exercises that will get you moving comfortably at the sewing machine and build your quilting skills as you quilt one block at a time. You'll make a quantum leap in your FMQ skills during the class and go home with a practice plan to continue building your skills. You'll leave class saying "I can DO this!"

In this class you will learn how to: 
- Pre-train your hands anytime, anywhere, before you sit down at the sewing machine.
- Set up your machine for free-motion quilting 
- Move your hands, your body and the quilt for relaxed, efficient quilting 
- Quilt the fundamental shapes that are the basis for all quilting patterns
- Join pre-quilted blocks to make a quilt of any size

The class is taught on domestic sewing machines, but the principles and exercises work equally well on a sit down or frame-mounted long-arm. The book includes instructions for domestic machines, as well as both sit-down and frame-mounted long-arm machines.


Skill Level: Beginner
Skill Details: Only pre-requisite is basic sewing machine operation and troublshooting! No prior free motion quilting experience required!
Materials Included: Books, toolkits, and further video instructions will be available for purchase at the shop
Instructor: RaNae Merrill
Instructor Bio: From RaNae:I began quilting in 1989 (my first year of graduate school) by finishing a quilt my grandmother had been making for me when she died in 1976. (It turned out to be king-size and I hand quilted the whole thing!) Later I found a batch of nine-patch squares in a trunk that had belonged to her, and I started using those to make baby quilts for my nieces and nephews. When people began praising my designs and suggesting that I quilt professionally, I brushed off the idea as impractical. So it was a surprise to me when I stumbled into quilting professionally back in 2005. I took some fabric design ideas to a few fabric manufacturers for feedback. To my surprise, Blank Quilting bought one of the groups I showed them. As I left the meeting, the designer I had met with suggested that I go to Quilt Market in Houston. I ended up at Quilt Festival and that was my first quilt show. It blew my mind! I saw quilts in a totally new way. And I learned that it was possible to make a career of quilting. I published my first book, Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts, in 2008, inspired by a doodle of a spiral I drew while on a temp job. That book was followed by two more books about spiral quilts: Magnificent Spiral Mandala Quilts and Sideways Spiral Quilts. Free-Motion Mastery in a Month,my fourth book, is a shift from quilt design to free-motion quilting. It's based on my experience as a pianist and piano teacher. Who knew when I started taking piano lessons at age 4 (and eventually got a Master's Degree in Piano Performance) that it would lead to teaching free-motion quilting?! It has been really fun to see people get excited about this unique approach to learning FMQ! (That's a very young me sitting at the very large piano.) The day I got my first box of books back in October 2008 I walked out the door to my first teaching engagement and I've been teaching ever since. I've taught throughout the USA, and also in South America (where I teach in Spanish). Somewhere in all of that, I also worked for a few years as a photographer and a travel writer. I still love to travel, though lately it seems like more of a treat to stay home and explore New York City! When getting out into nature to hike, kayak, ski and watch meteor showers.
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Class includes expert instruction with renowned national educator RaNae Merrill, use a classroom machines, or bring your own, no prior Free Motion Quilting experience required

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This class cannot be purchased online. Please contact the store for more information.
Contact Us
  • Golden Anchor Quilting
  • (603) 543-3311
  • 3607 Claremont Road, Suite 2
  • Beside Frank's Fabrics & Crafts
  • Charlestown, NH 03603
Store Hours
  • Open 7 Days a Week
  • Mon–Sat: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
  • Sunday: 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM
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