Knots and Stitches

Kristin Miller

After her early days as a waitress, Kristin Miller became an occupational therapist. When she abandoned that career, she was a housemother at a group home for teens, then worked on a fish farm, coordinated a mental health activity program, and became a professional quilter.

 Kristin is the author of The Careless Quilter: Decide-as-You-Sew, Design-as-You-Go Quiltmaking.

She wrote a research paper about the Coastal Quilters for the American Quilt Study Group, and contributed a chapter to Gumboot Girls.

The Coastal Quilters

The Coastal Quilters are an inclusive and fluid group that started in 1979 when five women living across the harbour from Prince Rupert BC made a baby quilt for a friend. Four decades later, over 120 people have been involved in the group quilt-making process. Some folks have contributed to one or two group-made quilts, others have stitched on more than forty.

The quilting circle has strong roots in small coastal communities in northern British Columbia, but by now has a large number of participants in southern BC, and especially in Vancouver.