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Insights from Lynda
When did you start sewing? Did you begin by making quilts or something different?
I can remember sewing when I was young. My mom used to sew for my sister and me, and she was always very good at needle work. My gramma was a dressmaker and quilter, but I never remember my mom quilting while I was growing up. I took home economics in school, like most girls did then. I used to sew for myself, a little, and did make my sons T-shirts and pull up pants when they were very young. When it got to a time when zippers became important, I stopped making their clothes. I have always loved crafts – both buying them and making them, but before I got into quilting I taught art for 15 years. I traded painting for quilting and haven’t looked back.
I began quilting in 1991 when my sister-in-law, Donna, introduced me to quilting one Christmas holiday at our house. I was hooked immediately. She and I continue to quilt together today.
Do you remember your first quilt?
Yes, it was a small wall hanging out of a Little Quilts book , called Hopscotch. Some cheater cloth was used in the pieced blocks and it was embellished with buttons. I hand quilted it with HUGE toe hooker type stitches. I certainly didn’t invent the big stitch, but was doing a good job of doing just that on the first several quilts I made. I remember complaining that I’d never get the hang of hand quilting, but with lots of practice it got better. I still have my first piece and to this day, the hand quilting is my very favourite part of the process.
How long have your been running Primitive Pieces?
I first thought about having a pattern company in 2000, but it was 2002 when I first went to International Quilt Market in Houston, Texas. Between those years I machine pieced and hand quilted 23 quilts to take to introduce at market. Most of them were bed sized quilts. I was the new kid on the block introducing all these darker quilts. It’s an experience I will never forget. In the early days, my mom, Edna Parton, did all the appliqué work for me. She’s 86 years old now and is unable to help any longer because of her lack of sight. I miss her help tremendously, but she’s still one of my biggest fans and very supportive of what I do.
Tell us a little about your business.
I think it’s still hard for me to believe I even have a pattern company. It was not my intention to do so when I started making quilts. My local quilt shop owner, Carol Crago of Goodhome Quilt Company, encouraged me to do patterns. She’s become a dear friend. She closed her shop when her husband retired a few years ago. We get together when we can so she can have a day in the country to sew. Carol also helps me test patterns.
From the very beginning I wanted my line to be different. I wanted to write stories about my family and name the quilts after either a family member or an event in their lives. Auntie Bean’s Stalks was my very first pattern. It’s about my great aunt “Robena”. Everyone called her Auntie Bean. I was driving down our country road one day when I saw the most beautiful sunflowers growing along a fence. They were huge. Their stalks were at least 6-8 feet tall and they had the friendliest faces. They reminded me of bean stalks and so Auntie Bean came to mind. When I designed the sunflower quilt I just knew the quilt had to be named after my aunt. I loved the sunflowers so much that I grew my own.
My mother’s family is a colourful bunch and so there are endless possibilities for more patterns to come. Punky Doodle Corners, Cranbrook Christmas and Boogey Bears are just a few of the early patterns I have. I now have 69 patterns, which also includes a booklet – My Yesteryear Collection (3 quilts) and a book that was self published last year, with the help of my daughter-in-law, Chelsie. It’s called Primitive Youngins. The name speaks of children and yes, they are smaller quilts, but the whole premise of the book was to take all of us back in our childhood to when we were children and the games we used to play. Hide ‘n Seek, Hopscotch, Let’s Play Jacks to name a few.
Naming the quilts is always fun. My husband and I have brainstorm sessions where I’ll throw out an idea and then we ponder the subject. Not all the names of the patterns are about what they are actually called. For example…. Tying the Knot isn’t about getting married at all. Old Ben’s Bonnet isn’t about Ben wearing a bonnet; Big Dipper isn’t about the stars we see.
Your quilts have a primitive flavour to them. Can you explain a little about your inspiration for them?
I think if 12 different people were asked to describe primitive you would receive 12 different answers. I know when I started my pattern line, I wanted to have warm, friendly looking quilts. Quilts that looked old, or aged, I guess would be a better term. Something that gramma would have made. I love the idea of running out of fabrics so that you don’t have a planned look to the quilts. It makes you choose something different, but similar to what you have already used in the quilt. Scrappy is my very favorite type of quilt.
I didn’t want to get too specialized with a certain type, but quilts that would go with the things I love. For example: painted furniture that is distressed and peeling, chairs around the dining room table that just don’t match, old cupboards where the doors hang a little funny and don’t always shut tight; all things that look pitiful and ugly dolls that just need a home. But, it’s not just a look. I wanted people to be able to just have fun. I wanted to make quilts where a point comes up missing or a corner doesn’t meet, so be it. What I think people should remember is to “enjoy the process” of making quilts.
I just received a wonderful picture from one of the gals in my pattern club who just finished the Bundling Board quilt. She told me the quilt took her three years to hand quilt. She started out with a very small Baptist fan quilting and realized because of size of it that it would take her forever to get it done. So, she increased the size of the fan pattern half way through. What I loved about that story was that she didn’t stress over the fact that it changed and looked different. She told me that she was once one of those people that had to have everything just perfect, but that I’ve influenced her to relax and just make it all fun.
I was given a title by the Wichita Kansas Quilt Guild of over 900 members. They dubbed me the “Queen of Scabbing things on and/or Whacking things off”. They know that if I make a mistake in measuring something I’ll fix it by doing either of those things. I don’t get excited about mistakes at all……..I like to think of that as “redesigning”.
Another aspect of what I wanted in my quilts was quilts that looked aged……loved and somewhat worn; not necessarily worn out. I don’t make quilts that will ever be put in a box or saved. I want to enjoy them now and if any are left over when I’m done, they can be handed down to members of our family.
Some very fun ways to make your quilt look older and loved………..
. Never use white in your quilt. A light yellow (cream) works just as well and will
automatically age your quilt. Using a darker tan is even better.
. When cutting your fabrics, don’t cut them perfectly straight. If using a plaid, cut it
where the plaid is a little g-whoppied. If using a stripe, have them go in
different directions.
. Piece together different fabrics for borders – it makes one think you just ran out
and it doesn’t look so planned.
. You can tea-dye or over dye your fabrics to age them, but if you purchase the
correct value of the fabrics for the quilt you are making you won’t have to do
that at all. Before you buy…….think of the overall look you want.
. Don’t always put a post block in every corner….there is no rule that say it has to
be that way. One or three post blocks always make me happy……or putting
post block in the middle of the border instead of the end always is fun.
. If you run flying geese down a border have some going the wrong way.
. Use different fabrics for your borders, or piece fabrics together to make them.
. Use different sizes for each border – top 4 inch, right side 5 inch, bottom and left
side 6 inches. It makes the center of your quilt just a little off center.
. Use an overall quilting that is simple. The more elaborate quilting the fancier it
looks.
. Use different scaled prints, checks, plaids, stripes in your quilt. Large prints
small calicos, buffalo checks, small checks, large plaids, small plaids. Stripes
of different thicknesses. Your eye can only see so much when you first look at
a quilt so it will pick out the biggest scaled fabrics. After your eye settles it
will start to pick out the different fabrics. Talk about eye candy to a quilter!
. To add depth to your quilt use black. Light comes forward and dark recedes.
Do you keep a quilting journal?
You know you always get the shoulda, coulda, woulda’s after the fact. Since my quilts are in pattern form I do have the cover pictures, written stories, each are dated (year only), and labels on each of them, so I have more records than most people. However, I don’t keep a written journal………something I should have done from the beginning. Fabrics are hardly ever reproduced so documenting individual fabrics seems silly to me.
NOW, if fabric manufacturer’s would reproduce some of the ones we all love and would die for we would be very happy and their pocket books would be full to the brim. (So, what’s up with that?)
What authors, artists, crafters or designers do you admire or are you influenced by?
I’m an avid reader – I love fiction of all kinds. I love sappy love stories with a happy ending. I love a good mystery, a thriller and I love reading to my grand daughters who are 5 ½ and 2. I guess Nora Roberts (she also writes as J.D. Robb) and Jeffrey Deaver would be my favorites.
I also enjoy reading about quilt history. I’ve been collecting a series of books from different states and their quilt history that has been very fascinating to me. I’m finding that the quilts of old are still very popular today. That some of the lighter quilts are being done in darker colors by some of the designers today. But, mostly I admire what they made not having any of the tools we have today.
As for painting, I love all the old masters. Renoir is my favorite and oils are my favorite medium – which are also dark in nature
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When I was first introduced to quilting, it was Jan Patek and Linda Brannock’s primitive style of quilting that I was drawn to. I love the fun shapes used in their quilts. I have always been drawn to old quilts that looked loved and worn. Especially the ones that were less than perfect. I was able to go see the Gee’s Bend Quilts when they came to our area and I got goose bumps when I saw what was made, by whom and with what was available. These were quilts directly from the heart of these women and I fell in love.
Some of my favorite crafter’s would include Rosemary Watson of Turkey Ridge Primitives and Sharon Stevens of Mustard Seeds Originals .
Both of these gals are the best at making primitive Dolls of which I have a huge collection.
What are you working on next?
I just finished 7 new patterns for this fall. They were introduced at International Quilt Market in Houston, Texas just this month. Pieced – reversible quilt called Fall Reversible. It features a Fall Pumpkin Guy on one side and a maple leaf quilt on the other - A pieced fabric with wool appliqué quilt, 2 wool table rugs – It’s a Crock and Will You be My Valentine? and something new for me…….patterns that are bundled together….at least two sewing projects in each bundle - Necessary bundle - sewing roll-ups and pattern bags, Christmas Bundle - 2 Christmas wool table rugs, Funda Bundle – a pieced table rug and a painted sewing box with a quilt block/pin cusion on top.
I am very excited to be working with the Kansas City Star on a new book for July 2010……And, there will be new patterns for spring. Perhaps more new bundles or another reversible quilt. I’ve been asked to make a doll pattern to go along with the primitive Youngins book so I’m thinking hard about that as well.
I love to hear from people about what THEY would like so I encourage them to write to me. It takes all of us working together to make quilting as popular today as it was in the past.
What other aspects of quilting are you involved in besides your patterns? (ie, teaching, guilds etc)
I got involved with Quilts for a Cause, Inc., (http://www.quiltforacause.org/) which is for breast cancer, several years ago. I lost my only sister to cancer 3 years ago and so it’s been an on going project that is near and dear to my heart. I call it a “block party” I design a block and send it out to my pattern club people that have volunteered to help and in turn, they invite their friends to join in. Many of them have their own “block party” Last year 120 blocks were donated and 4 large quilts were pieced together and shipped off to Arizona for auction. The block party before this, 3 quilts were sent to them for auction. People volunteer their time to make at least one block, sometimes much more; machine quilter’s volunteer their talent and batting to machine quilt for our projects. It’s quite a group effort and I’m so proud of my team. I cry a lot during this whole process as we have all been touched by cancer. The stories I receive back with the blocks sometimes blow me away.
I love lecturing at guild meetings and have done so in a few places around the United States – Florida, Kansas, and Tennessee. It’s so much fun to take a trunk show and talk about the thing I love best…….quilting.
I teach at Primitives of the Midwest in Lee’s Summit, Missouri every summer. This was my 6th year. It’s a wonderful retreat for primitive lovers sponsored by Quilter’s Station in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Rita Briner and her girls make sure everyone has a great time. I was also invited to teach at the Buggy Barn Quilts in Reardon, Washington this year, another retreat that is very well known and loved by all that attend.
Two of my patterns have been published in the Quilter’s Newsletter – Quilt it for Christmas Magazine – Cranbrook Christmas and Prairie Christmas Star, and I have had different pieces of my work featured in American Patchwork and Quilting – 3 this year
My Sewing Box was in their new speciality magazine –Totes, pillows and Pin Cushions
My 3 block table runner was in Quilts ‘n More
Perfectly Perched a pieced table topper or small wall hanging in the December issue
of American Patchwork and Quiltings
My Snow Trails quilt was featured this year in the Kansas City Star’s “My Stars II” book which was just recently published.
I feel like I am very blessed to be able to do what I love. My husband, Curt, of almost 41 years has always been very supportive of what I do. He travels to market with me now that my mom isn’t able to do so. I have two wonderful grown sons that
we are very proud who of have two delightful wives that take care of them now. And, we have two delightful granddaughters that we both adore. We live with a bloodhound named Skeeter and a cat named Topaz that runs the house.
Life is good.
You can see more of Lynda’s beautiful designs and purchase her patterns at her website, Primitive Pieces by Lynda.
For more information about old and primitive crafts, you can try the following blogs and sites:
The Patchwork Angel
Hatched and Patched
Sue Spargo
The Quilted Crow
Sew Primitive Quilter
Inspired by Antique Quilts
Jan Patek
Crazy for Primitive Quilts and Gardens
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