RaNae Merrill - Machine Quilting

RaNae Merrill
New York, NY

My superpower is teaching free-motion quilting to beginners! Like so many quilters, I got really frustrated trying to learn FMQ. My “Aha!” moment came when I realized that, as a lifelong pianist and piano teacher, I already knew how to teach my hands to do complex movements. Using that experience as a springboard, I created Free-Motion Mastery in a Month, a simple step-by-step system for anyone to easily learn FMQ. It’s different from other approaches to learning FMQ because it’s based on body movements, rather than just doodling or “practice, practice, practice.”

Before jumping into free-motion quilting, I wrote three books about using spirals in quilt design: Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts, Magnificent Spiral Mandala Quilts, and Sideways Spiral Quilts. And in the past few years, I’ve published three more books: T-Shirt Quilts, One Block at a Time!, Not Your Grandma’s Nine-Patch Quilts, and The 1-Hour Quilt Top.

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been teaching quilting now for almost 20 years! When I’m not quilting and writing, you can find me outdoors hiking, kayaking, skiing and golfing, or indoors playing the piano and cooking. When I’m not traveling (which isn’t often), I’m at home in New York City, just north of Central Park.