Exciting News All Around!!!!
Hello Beautiful Golden Anchor Quilting Community!
Three pieces of Exciting news for our sewing community!
We are thrilled to announce that Golden Anchor Quilting has been approved as an official BERNINA dealership!
This decision came after extensive research and careful consideration of what’s best for our community. We explored multiple brands, asked tough questions, and evaluated everything—from machine quality to dealer support and educational opportunities. In the end, BERNINA stood out as the perfect fit for our shop and the amazing sewists we serve!
To ensure we provide you with the best experience possible, Darren and Louisa will be heading to Chicago for official dealer and technical training from March 15-23. (The shop will be open, we may have some shorter hours while folks help out that week, but we will keep you posted!) When we return, our first shipment of BERNINA machines will arrive, and we can’t wait to share them with you! Stay tuned for some great opening specials!
Transitioning Our Classroom Machines
As we make room for our new BERNINA classroom machines, our current Brother Luminaire XP2 machines (with XP3 software upgrades and lots of extras) are now at Angel’s Sewing and Quilting for servicing. In about two weeks, these machines will be available for sale, priced individually based on stitch counts and Angel’s fair market value assessment. There will be seven machines available, and they will be sold on a first come, first served basis. Four machines have already been spoken for, so please let us know ASAP if you would like to be on the short list!
During this transition, we won’t have our usual classroom machines. However, we do have wonderful basic machines, including some vintage gems, available for use during classes and open sew days. As always, you are welcome to bring your own machine to classes and open sew days!
Continuing to Support All Brands
While we won’t be a Brother dealership moving forward, we remain committed to servicing all brands. Gene is doing brilliantly keeping our community’s machines up and running! For Brother warranty work on more advanced electronic models, we’ve partnered with Sew Far North in Littleton, NH, and Angel’s Sewing and Quilting in Salem, NH to ensure you continue receiving excellent support.
We know change can be an adjustment, but we’re incredibly excited for this new chapter and all the opportunities it will bring to our community. Thank you for your support—we can’t wait to stitch up something amazing together!
Quilts of Valor Retreat – March 28-30, 2025
Join us for a powerful weekend of stitching, service, and community as we come together to create Quilts of Valor for veterans!
???? Location: White River Junction VA Hospital Freedom Building Conference Room
????? Dates & Times:
• Friday, March 28: Doors open at 8 AM (volunteers available to help unload 8-10 AM)
• Saturday, March 29: Doors open at 8 AM and we quilt until we wilt!
• Sunday, March 30: Wrap-up by 2 PM (volunteers available to help load 1-3 PM)
• The space is secure, so you can leave your setup in place all weekend!
? Registration is open! We still have 22 sewing spots available, along with plenty of helper roles. Sign up on our website. (Register for sewing HERE Register for Helping HERE) We are not requiring that you be able to attend all three days, just register and come help when you can!
What to Expect:
???? Sewing & Fellowship – We’ll sew as many quilt tops as possible, with a VA representative staying as late as we can keep her awake!
???? Fabric & Patterns – Use our pre-cut kits or bring your own materials (check the Quilts of Valor website HERE for size requirements and HERE for FREE Patterns!). We are still accepting fabric donations to help build more kits!
????? Food & Hospitality – Thanks to generous local businesses, two meals are covered! Friday night is a potluck dinner, and we’ll have a snack-sharing table plus a coffee, tea, and water station throughout the weekend.
???? Volunteer Support – Need a hand? Volunteers will be on-site to help unload and reload your supplies. Friday from 8am-10am and Sunday from 1pm-3pm (If you know a strong back who would be willing to help, we are still seeking volunteers for this part too!)
How You Can Help:
? Register to sew or volunteer – Every set of hands makes a difference! (Register for sewing HERE Register for Helping HERE)
? Help with food donations – We’re still looking for meal sponsors for 50+ attendees. If you know a local restaurant or grocery store that might be interested, let us know!
? Longarm Quilters Needed – After the retreat, we’ll need help quilting the tops before our big Quilts of Valor presentation in July or August—the first one at the WRJ VA in over 15 years!
? Kit makers - Join us on February 19 or February 22 at the shop to help sort out the donated fabrics, and cut them into kits for folks at the retreat to assemble!
???? Save the Date & Spread the Word! Let’s come together to honor and give back to those who have served.
Update on Our Tuesday Night LIVE Broadcasts
We love connecting with you all during our Tuesday Night LIVE broadcasts on YouTube, and we know many of you set aside time each week to join us. That’s why we’ve made the tough decision to pause our live streams until we can upgrade to a computer that can handle recording and streaming smoothly—without frustrating hiccups!
In the meantime, we’re pre-recording our weekly tutorials and will continue sharing them on Tuesdays, just like our usual LIVE schedule. We’ll also include occasional shop news updates to keep you in the loop.
We’d love to hear your suggestions and requests for future tutorial topics! Drop us a note with what you’d like to learn—we’re excited to keep bringing you creative inspiration while we work toward returning to live broadcasts with the quality you deserve.
This week’s tutorial is a fabric Danish heart, which we attempted live twice but ran into tech issues—third time’s the charm! Click HERE to watch our first recorded tutorial!
Thank you for your patience and support. We can’t wait to be back LIVE with our wonderful, loyal viewers as soon as possible!
We appreciate all of you, and all that you do to keep our community strong! We look forward to the next time we get to see your smiling face!
In Stitches,
Louisa, Darren, and the Crew at Golden Anchor Quilting
Where Community is the Fabric of Our Dreams!
Golden Anchor Quilting
367 Washington Street Suite 6
Claremont, NH 03743
603-543-3311
louisa@goldenanchorquilting.com
Golden Anchor Quilting Website