You’re walking along Duluth’s waterfront path on a crisp autumn day. Lake Superior glitters in the sunshine; birds alight on the water. In town, the people — many wearing Vikings jerseys — are just plain nice. You pop into the quilt shop, where everybody knows your name and what quilt you’re working on. With your sewing group later that night, you toast and say, “Skol!” then enjoy some hot dish — extra tots.

This meditation on the Minnesota good life provides key impressions of the state. But beyond being a place of casseroles and hockey, the Land of 10,000 Lakes is also home to many talented quilters living their own version of the good life. For Rose Marie Werner, this means studying her favorite topic: vintage quilt kits; for longarm quilter Karen McTavish, it’s sharing what she knows; for immigrant Suzanne Thao, the good life means passing on an important appliqué tradition. What’s your idea of the good life? Picture it in your mind — but first, let’s see how they do things in Minnesota.

See you up north!