Kristin Miller Quilts: Quilting on the Wild Side
This website features my own quilts, the ones I make by myself, for sale, or for my own satisfaction.
I believe that quilts can be eloquent and evocative, communicating mystery and magic, love or woe, outrage or idealism. Quilts can express childhood memories, the wonders of nature, hope for the future, visual puns, or just the sheer joy of colour. My quilts are elegant and unusual, with surprising colours, impeccable workmanship, and awesomely original designs.
Gumboot Girls: Adventure, Love and Survival on British Columbia’s North Coast
Many of the women I’ve written about in Knots and Stitches have told their own stories in this best-selling book from Caitlin Press.
Forty years ago, droves of young women migrated away from urban settings and settled in rural areas across North America. Many settled on the north coast of British Columbia, on Haida Gwaii or around Prince Rupert. Gumboot Girls tells the stories of thirty-four women, through their own eyes, as they moved from their comfortable city-dwelling surroundings to the rugged north coast. This collection of stories is part back-to-the-land, part adventure, heartbreak and love. Many of the women I’ve written about in Knots and Stitches have told their own stories in this best-selling book from Caitlin Press.
https://caitlinpress.com/Books/D/Dancing-in-Gumboots
Gumboot Girls Facebook Page
A surprisingly popular Facebook page with fascinating photos and anecdotes that spin off from Gumboot Girls and it’s companion volume, Dancing in Gumboots.
Gumboot Guys: Nautical Adventures on British Columbia’s North Coast
Young men came north searching for adventure and became smitten with boats and a seafaring lifestyle. Stories of buying, fixing, building and running boats; learning to navigate the ocean’s many moods; describing the abundance, and subsequent decline, of salmon stocks; and many, many tales of the unpredictable nature of life on the sea paint a vivid picture of the thrilling, adventurous and occasionally dangerous world awaiting these men. The constant current running through each of these stories is community—the guidance of experienced mentors, the encouragement from fellow adventure-seekers and the generous support of partners and families. These stories serve as a time capsule commemorating an era of hope, fortitude and freedom.
Some of the Gumboot Guys also appear in Knots and Stitches.
If you want to know what the North Coast looks like in all it’s beautiful complexity and detail, check out Mark Wills’ photos. Clicking through Mark’s Timeline photos will immerse you in the magical landscape and seascape of the coastal north. His photos of the muskeg plants celebrate their glory in almost microscopic detail.
Lonnie has focused her artist’s eye on every aspect of North Coast society, industry, culture, and scenery–on land and on the sea. ,Her website displays an amazingly diverse collection of her stunning photos.
Innovative Group Quiltmaking in an Isolated Coastal Community in British Columbia, Canada: Out of the Mainstream, by Kristin Miller
After a quilt historian visited the Coastal Quilters show at the Museum of Northern BC in 1992, she suggested that I write a research paper about our quilts and lifestyle for the American Quilt Study Group. I agreed, though I scarcely knew how to go about this task. My friends answered my questions as I ‘researched’ their marine-based lifestyles, their friendships and interconnections, and their apparently unique methods of quiltmaking. I wrote as scholarly a piece as I could manage, and my paper was accepted for publication in Uncoverings 1993, Volume 14 of the Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group.
Prince Rupert Stories of the Past Facebook Page
Vintage photos and memories of a very special little town.
Find an Independent Bookstore
This site lists Indy Bookstores by province and state, making it easy to bypass Amazon and the big box stores.
How to Resist Amazon and Why: The Fight for Local Economics, Data Privacy, Fair Labor, Independent Bookstores, and a People-Powered Future!
by Danny Caine
I couldn’t resist posting this link, because we need to think twice before buying anything through Amazon. If there is an independent bookstore in your town, keep it alive by ordering books through them.
Knots and Stitches 
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