Every good rental cabin keeps a guest book on the kitchen table, usually next to a jar of pens that mostly work. You flip through it on the first night and read about the moose someone spotted, the storm that knocked the power out and the pie from the diner in town. Pieced Pines & Patchwork Trees reads like that guest book, if every visitor happened to be a quilter. Each design pieces a favorite place together from fabric-textured pines, rivers, peaks and lakes, stitched with the words Stitchin' In.
Signed from the high country
Colorado sends a river winding down between rocky peaks and dark pines, with a frothy mug waiting at the bottom. Mount Rainier rises snowy over a meadow of wildflowers while a bear wanders the shore, and Glacier National Park drops a turquoise lake beneath jagged summits. Oregon pours a waterfall through the pines and tucks a cluster of red roses by the river, Idaho runs from its peaks down to a rainbow over a field of potatoes, and Bozeman floats a ski lift over the slopes. Patchwork Mountain Dreams sets a sewing machine right among the pieced blue peaks and evergreens, which is where most of us would like to keep ours.
Signed from the lake cabins
Boundary Waters paddles a canoe past tall pines to a crackling campfire, and the Adirondacks pull a red canoe up beside another fire on a still mountain lake. Green Mountains rolls out soft green hills with white birches and a moose standing in the grass. Lake Tahoe spreads a deep blue lake below snowy peaks, Coeur d'Alene fills its water with little sailboats, Duluth arches a bridge over the harbor, and Minnesota dots its whole map with lakes, a loon floating in the corner.
Signed from a bit farther down the road
Not every guest came for the pines. Maine brings a lighthouse, a sailboat and one very red lobster. Rhode Island fills the bay with white sails. Anchorage swirls a wild sky over the city with a moose in silhouette below, Mackinac Island lines up painted houses and a horse-drawn carriage, and Iowa City gathers its golden domed capitol among leafy green trees. Alabama patches plaid and cotton fields above the water, Arkansas winds blue rivers across a green map, California layers sunshine and redwoods, and Virginia sends a cardinal perched above the hills.
A page with her name on it
Picture the quilter who has a place like this in her heart, the lake she has visited every summer since she was small or the mountain town she swears she will move to someday. Find her place in the book and let her carry it with her. Then leave a note for the next guest, the way the good ones always do: firewood is by the back door, the coffee maker takes a minute, and please do not vacuum up the loose threads. They are there on purpose.
Written by Jacqueline. Thanks for reading.
