Thursday, October 1, 2026
When Bob and Karen Walker bought their Mukilteo home in 2017, they fell in love with one thing immediately: the sweeping view of Possession Sound and the Salish Sea.
The rest, they admit, needed work.
“It was ugly, really,” Bob Walker said with a laugh, recalling weathered wooden fencing, an aging deck and an overgrown yard.
Nearly a decade later, the property has been transformed into a showcase garden overlooking the water – one of six featured stops on the 2026 Mukilteo Garden & Quilt Tour, set for July 18-19.
The biennial event, presented by the Mukilteo Way Garden Club and the Mukilteo Lighthouse Quilters, runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. Visitors will tour six residential gardens and Rosehill Community Center while viewing more than 100 quilts displayed throughout the venues. Some quilts will be available for purchase.
Tickets are $25 and limited to 1,000. Organizers say the tour has sold out in recent years.
For Karen Walker, opening her garden this year feels like a natural extension of two passions that have shaped much of her life: gardening and quilting.
“I’ve been quilting for about 30 years,” she said. “When we moved to Mukilteo, I joined the Mukilteo Lighthouse Quilters Guild and have been involved in every tour since.”
Originally, the Walkers planned only to participate as tour visitors and quilt exhibitors. But when one of the scheduled gardens became unavailable, organizers put out a call for a replacement.
“I said, ‘I can,’” Karen recalled.
The result is a property that reflects years of planning and patience.
The renovation began in 2020 with a complete rebuilding of the deck and patio. Wooden railings were replaced with transparent glass panels to preserve unobstructed views of the water. The deck was expanded, new steel supports installed, and matching tile was carried from the deck through the patios and walkways below.
“We consider this our forever home,” Karen said. “We wanted to make it the way we wanted it.”
The project wasn’t without challenges. Construction delays during the pandemic slowed progress, and Bob remembers nervously watching a crane lift massive steel beams over the house during installation.
“It took close to two years just to get the deck done,” he said.
Once the hardscape was finished, the Walkers turned their attention to the landscape itself.
Karen oversees the gardens. Bob describes himself as the construction supervisor and heavy-lifting department.
“She says a plant needs to move, and I dig a hole,” he said.
Five raised beds showcase Karen’s seasonal plantings. Tulips bloom in spring before giving way to irises and dahlias. Another bed produces vegetables and herbs, while a dedicated rose garden features hybrid tea roses.
Wildflowers spill across the upper beds, attracting pollinators and providing changing color throughout the season.
A cedar greenhouse allows Karen to start seedlings as early as February using grow lights and warming mats.
One surprise after returning to the Pacific Northwest was discovering how much the climate had changed.
Karen lived in Mukilteo more than three decades ago before moving to California, Europe and New Jersey for careers in the pharmaceutical industry. When the couple returned in 2016, she expected the short growing season she remembered.
Instead, she found she could plant much earlier.
“The growing season is much longer now,” she said. “I put things in the ground in April, which we didn’t do 36 years ago.”
Throughout the property, Pacific Northwest favorites – hydrangeas, hostas, ornamental grasses, rhododendrons and maples – provide year-round texture and color. The Walkers have also worked to make much of the garden accessible, with gently sloping paths that allow visitors to reach most areas without navigating stairs.
One of the garden’s most striking features stands near the western edge of the patio: a custom glass water feature designed by First Nations artist Jason Hunt of British Columbia and fabricated by Anthony Jamieson Design Studio.
The artwork incorporates Indigenous coastal imagery, including a sea eagle, moon and salmon, while serving as both sculpture and privacy screen.
Karen said she wanted the piece to reflect the cultural heritage of the Salish Sea and connect visually to the nearby ferry terminal.
The water feature was installed only this spring, becoming the final major addition to the years-long project.
While the gardens may draw visitors, quilts have become a major part of the tour.
Karen’s quilting studio occupies a former home theater inside the house. There, a computerized long-arm quilting machine fills much of the room, surrounded by shelves of fabric and works in progress.
Her first quilt hangs nearby – an origami-inspired wall hanging made after taking a quilting class in California in 1999.
“I fell into quilting,” she said. “I took one class, and that started it.”
Today, she has dozens of completed quilts and many more underway.
Karen will have three quilts displayed this year, including one hanging in her own garden.
Altogether, about 20 quilts will be exhibited on the Walker property alone, draped from fences, railings, the greenhouse and throughout the garden beds.
The pairing of gardens and quilts is what makes the Mukilteo tour unique, Karen said.
“The quilts are beautiful, and the pairing of the quilts in the gardens is really spectacular,” she said. “Everybody who comes just really loves it.”
The collaboration between the two sponsoring organizations has become a Mukilteo tradition.
Founded in 1933, the Mukilteo Way Garden Club is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting gardening, environmental stewardship and horticultural education.
Members maintain Fowler Pear Tree Park and the Crossing Paths Quilt Garden at Rosehill Community Center. Proceeds from the tour help fund the club’s annual horticultural scholarship program.
The Mukilteo Lighthouse Quilters, established in 2004, promote quilting education and community involvement. Members also create quilts that are donated to charitable organizations throughout the region.
This year, some quilts will be available for purchase after visitors expressed interest during previous tours.
As the Walkers prepare for hundreds of visitors, they’re hoping people leave inspired.
Some may come for gardening ideas. Others may come for the quilts or the view.
Karen’s goal is simpler.
“I just want people to enjoy it,” she said.
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