Coming from a sewing family, including her Great Grandmother and mother, Katie Niessen has always sewn. When Katie decided she was going to make a quilt she grabbed her wooden yard stick to use as a measuring guide and made a log cabin quilt. “You use what you have!” Katie laughed reminiscing about that first project.

After completing the log cabin quilt, she signed up for lessons at The County Peddler where she became even more excited about quilting. She was fascinated with a book she would see on display for miniature quilts. Soon she decided she would tackle a miniature. Katie chuckled remembering becoming distracted with other larger quilting projects and learning more techniques resulting in the miniature becoming a UFO.

Katie loves all styles of piecing and applique. The excitement of new fabric and especially the process of cutting and binding fuels her creativity.  She loves going to quilt shops and meeting and chatting with other quilters that are there.  It’s something she says keeps her active.

The onset of Covid and the N95 mask shortage coupled with the resulting confinement of the shutdown inspired Katie to make and donate over 1300 COVID masks. Just when she thought she was done making masks she began receiving special requests and made an additional 500 increasing her grand total to upwards of 1800 masks!

Living in a condo, Katie decided it was time to start simplifying her life and began giving away personal things as well as UFO’s and fabric. She donated to the Minnesota Quilt Guild and various friends. Katie called a special quilting friend asking her to come over and see some of what she was giving away. This friend left Katie’s with a trunk full of fabric and 20 UFO’s. The friend had an idea and reached out to her own guild, the Owatonna Piecemaker Quilt Guild. She proposed her idea of individuals in the guild finishing the UFOs as a guild project. Members enthusiastically embraced the idea volunteering individually to take a UFO with the commitment to complete it for their upcoming 2020 guild show.
 
Unfortunately, that show was canceled because of the COVID crisis. When the show was rescheduled for 2021 the completed UFOs became a featured exhibit in the show that took place October into November at the Owatonna Arts Center. The special exhibit was aptly dubbed “Kate’s Challenge.”

The completed UFOs weren’t the end of Katie’s donation! There were still many fabrics remaining when the UFO challenge was completed. Those fabrics were gifted to the former Glad Creations Quilt Shop group Minneapolis Glad to Be Quilting Quilters who make quilts for Twin Cities’ hospitals and shelters.

Currently Katie is working on an English Paper Piecing project.