Hello! Welcome to my website and blog.

When used as an Italian idiom, per caso implies a wonderful process by which stuff comes together to create an opportunity that is seemingly by chance.

There are many other words… luck [when preparation meets opportunity]; courage [putting what’s important to you above your fear]; karma, destiny, fate….

I like these concepts because they encourage us to increase our awareness and live in the moment.

Please enjoy my site… it challenges me to acknowledge my courage and prepare for my luck!

Katherine Zimmer
Artist • Writer • Coach
Marketing Diva

My Quilt
© 2006, Katherine Zimmer
- written for a quilt exhibit in Napa, CA

Population 618. This was the number of people living in the town that housed my new life at 11. Coming from the California Bay Area hub-bub of the early 70’s, this was a shocking move for an aspiring city girl. Rural Idaho, yikes!

I found myself embracing the small community in many ways. Every one knew each other and aside from the team sport of nosey gossiping by some, most were warm-spirited and supportive of my Mom, a recent divorcée with two young kids, who managed to make ends meet working five jobs every year. Yes, seriously… cook for the grade school, cook/waitress at the local coffee shop, cashier at the pool, bookkeeping for the golf course, and wrangling the seniors at the center.

To help out – my older brother and I stepped up around the house and worked summer jobs from the age of 12 to buy the “stuff” kids have to have. It was okay to work at 12 back then, and I don’t regret it for a second.

At age thirteen I found my domestic inner Harriet Nelson and became an overachiever in Home Economics at school where I made a lot of my own clothes. The local Senior Center had a quilting bee… a group of hard-lived women who were mostly alone and found like-minded companionship, discussing grandchildren and the politics of the new mayor. One of my Mom’s jobs was bussing the seniors out and about on short excursions, so I hung out at the senior center once in while, listening to their stories.

I gave all my sewing scraps to the quilting divas. Mary Johnson was a sweet woman in her late 60’s with a kind, round face and a dark brown wig. She still lived in the same house where she grew up and was a wife and mother. Unknown to me, Mary took my scraps home and magically cut them into a star. One day the quilting divas surprised me with the beautiful star-top for a quilt made from the scraps of the clothes that I had made for myself. Even at 15, I knew this was special.

The quilting divas backlog of creative requests and life’s distractions denied me the pleasure of having them finish the quilt by the time we moved back to California. It took me 10 years to get the star-top quilted, but I never lost site of it and it warms me to this day.