North Coast Life and Quilts
Knots and Stitches: Community Quilts Across the Harbour
a memoir by Kristin Miller
A life-affirming memoir celebrating the power of community and the stalwart women who honed their nautical skills, fell in and out of love, honoured life’s milestones by making quilts together and thrived in a harsh and sometimes dangerous environment. Despite the turmoil of life and loss, friendship and creativity fostered lasting communal ties on the rugged west coast of British Columbia.
Preorder from Caitlin Press, or from an Independent Bookstore
Coastal Quilts of BC 1979-2022
a Slideshow of 130 Group-made Quilts
More than four decades of community-made quilts are documented in this colourful slideshow. A far-flung and ever-expanding circle of friends have created baby quilts, wedding quilts, friendship and birthday quilts, and quilts to comfort the ill and the dying.
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RECENT POSTS
Do It Yourself, in the Seventies and Eighties
DIY in the Seventies and Eighties: We didn’t have the internet, didn’t have Google, and often didn’t even have electricity or a phone. But we had books. Here are some of the essential books that told me how to do the things I wanted to do or needed to do.
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My Interview on CBC Daybreak North, with Carolina deRyk, Oct 4, 2023
Having just published Knots and Stitches, I’m still a bit shy to talk about it. I was lucky to have Carolina deRyk as host of my first interview. She immediately put me at ease, and asked such interesting questions that I found myself talking quite easily. I’ve tried to match the photos to some of the things we talked about.…
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Pass-the-Medallion Quilts, 1982-84
In the early eighties, I showed my friends how to make quilts by adding concentric borders around a central square. Our “pass-the-medallion” quilts were a spin-off from this idea. Someone would start a center square, then pass it on to a friend who would add a border around it. She in turn would pass it on to another friend, and…
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Our Early Block Quilts
“Anything Goes Quilts” is how we informally describe our communally made block quilts, because there are no rules or restrictions on what is contributed. So the blocks are sometimes wildly varied, yet the combined result is always beautiful.
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CBC Hill and Dodge Cove
We were caretakers for the radio transmitter site up on the hill above the village of Dodge Cove.
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Mia’s Quilt, 1986
Mia’s quilt was a travelling work-in-progress with friends adding a border, then passing the quilt-top to the next person who wanted to work on it. The result was a spectacular baby quilt for Mia.
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Knots and Stitches 
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