Lynn Robinson

Lynn Robinson

CA95051-DAR002

Lynn Robinson

Joy C Spence

3/26/09

Susan Salser

Campbell, CA

Billie Spence

Joy C. Spence (JCS): My name is Joy C. Spence and today's date is March 26th, 2009. It is 2:27. I am conducting an interview with Lynn Robinson for the Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories project. We are doing this through the American Heritage Committee of the California State Society Daughters of the American Revolution. Lynn is a quilter and is a member of the Santa Clara Chapter. I would like to ask you, Lynn, if you make quilts.

Lynn Robinson (LR): Yes, I do.

JCS: And what kind of quilts do you make?

LR: All kinds of quilts, large quilts, small quilts, sewed quilts, piece quilts, whatever is going down I am making it.

JCS: Do you consider any of it wearable art?

LR: No, but I have done some crazy quilt vests I made for all my daughters and granddaughters, daughter-in-law for Christmas one year, but that is the extent of wearable art I am not much into the fashiony stuff [laughs.] or--

JCS: Or would you wear the wearable art?

LR: I guess it depends on what it is. I would wear a vest a quilted, vest. Oh, I made jackets. [JCS hums.] Quilted jackets, but that's not a whole outfit, never a whole outfit. Nothing like at the Houston shows for the wearable art show but a jacket or a vest I haven't done that in a long time.

JCS: Do you sleep under a quilt?

LR: Yes, I do.

JCS: And what kind of a quilt is it?

LR: It is a Mariners Compass Quilt. It is the first quilt that I ever made because no one told me that your first quilt should not be a Mariners Compass quilt. I saw it in a Colonial Homes magazine on the cover where it came on a four poster canopy bed and I had to have it and the way to have it was to make it. So I sent for the pattern, proceeded to hand piece the whole thing. Then my mother-in-law came and saw it and I had this giant octopus thing and she said, 'Give me that.' And she took it away and she came back and it was all laid out beautifully and appliquéd down on a large circle that I could then put into a king size quilt and it has four small mariners compasses on the corners and, oh, it has a chevron boarder and it just goes on forever. No one told me that I was not supposed to make that as my first quilt.

JCS: Why do you suppose that was?

LR: [laughs.] Well, I don't know. If you want something, you've got to make it, right? And it sat there for 25 years, the top being done and then one day I met this Amish lady in Wisconsin and I said, 'I have a quilt top that you could quilt for me if you promise not to laugh.' She said, 'I would never do that,' so I sent it off to her and it came back and the whole thing was absolutely gorgeous. You would never know that this was a first time quilt and that everything is wrong. Everything that could go wrong or should go wrong or you could do wrong, is wrong in that quilt, except perhaps her quilting which is absolutely beautiful. It's even [pause.] appliquéd onto a sheet.

JCS: What did you seem have the most difficulty with?

LR: Oh, it was no difficulty for me. It is in the eyes of other people. [laughs.] It turned out just great.

JCS: Well, have you ever given quilts as gift then? As a gift? [laughs.]

LR: Yes, my daughters and my granddaughters, my son and daughter-in-law I give them all, they all have quilts?

JCS: Do they sleep under them? Or how do they use them?

LR: I think they disappear into the Cedar Chest [JCS laughs.] to be kept as some future heirloom. I know that my two daughters and my daughter-in-law all became really gung ho before they were all married and made king size biscuit quilts. I think that was the last quilt that any of them made. But hey, they were all king size and they got done and were whipped out in no time at all, but I think that is the end since they have gotten married and children and careers. They just now say, 'Oh, thank you Mom,' when a new one appears at their house.

JCS: Are you self taught?

LR: Yes, obviously, [laughs.] if your first quilt is a Mariners Compass, probably.

JCS: Do you have quilters in your family?

LR: My great- [clears throat.] great-grandmother was a quilter. Well, I don't know if she was a quilter. She was a seamstress. I have a quilt that she made when she was 12. It's an Album style quilt and I don't know if she made quilts, but I do have that one. I have a doll quilt that my grandmother made for me, but she also was not necessarily a quilter. [clears throat.] It's thread and fabric and yarn and crochet cotton was involved or embroidery floss. They did it all. Whatever came down, and you sewed for your house-curtains, clothing, aprons, so it wasn't so much as they were quilters, they were sewers.

JCS: Do you belong to a Guild?

LR: No, I don't. I have only been to one guild meeting although I do belong to the Baltimore Appliqué Society. Of course they are in Baltimore and I'm in California so I don't participate much but--

JCS: Have you made a block or anything of a Baltimore quilt?

LR: Yes, I just finished a whole quilt for this interview which is actually valentines for my husband. One block per year. It started out to be two blocks per year. Well one for Valentine's Day and one on our anniversary. That quickly faded into one block a year. Then the last block I made turned out to be our 40th wedding anniversary. So that's the center block which is actually the size of four of the normal blocks and that is a basket with the album in it and it has things in it from,-I am from Baltimore- So it had Baltimore Orioles and the state flower is the Black Eyed Susan. He is from Wisconsin so there are violets in there because that is the state flower from Wisconsin and the Album has our wedding invitation inside.

JCS: Do you belong to a sewing group or bee?

LR: Yes, I have a sewing group "Pins and Needles." It's members are from our DAR Chapter and we make soft fabric books for the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford and also quilts and afghans for the children at Ronald McDonald House. We also make the lap robes for the veteran's hospital at Palo Alto.

JCS: Have pictures of you, your quilts or patterns ever been published?

LR: No.

JCS: Do you collect or sell quilts?

LR: Never sell, never sell, always collect, the more the merrier. They're stuffed everywhere.

JCS: Do you find that you rotate to a certain kind of quilt?

LR: Yes, I really love the Baltimore Album quilts. I only own them if I make them myself. But the ones I am really drawn to are the everyday quilts that somebody made for their bed, just a pieced quilt. The feed sack quilt was, the first one I ever bought at a flea market, I think it was $25.00. It's butterflies, buttonhole stitched made out of feed sacks. I mean the butterflies are made out of feed sacks and they're buttonholed and the batting is as about as lumpy as it gets. I think you can even feel the cotton seeds in there and I love it and its very warm and I use it when I can if we go some place and you have to take bedding-like my sons house in Tahoe [laughs.] where you have to take your own stuff. I take that quilt because I just love it, but those are the ones I am drawn to, the pieced quilts.

JCS: Would you use that batting in other quilts that you would make today?

LR: No, I don't even know how you would quilt through it. The quilting stitches are huge. It is obviously somebody's--maybe not their first effort because the buttonhole stitching is pretty good, but the quilting is atrocious. But it's holding together. It holds together just fine. It is so thick which is probably why her stitches are so big.

JCS: Do you have a collection of quilting or sewing memorabilia?

LR: Oh yes. How can you not if you like sewing?

JCS: And what is it?

LR: I have my grandmother's sewing machine. An old Singer, I have another Singer from the 50's, I had my mother-in-law's treadle machine, but my daughter made off with that one. Not that she uses it, [JCS laughs.] but it is a decorative item in her house. I have sterling silver pin cushions and needle cases and needle books and probably anything else you can think of, and sock darners. I was big into sock darners for a while. [inaudible due to both speaking at the same time.]

JCS: Do you keep these all in one area?

LR: Yes, away from my grand daughters who just love to play with those little things. So yeah, they're in my bedroom in a bookcase for the most part.

JCS: Do you teach quilting?

LR: No, not even to my granddaughters even though I try, but they have found out it is easier for grandma to do it. They come up with ideas. They will go shopping and they will tell you how to put it together, color wise, but I have not got them to actually do it.

JCS: Now I know that you travel, so when you travel outside of your home town, which is San Jose at the present, what do you shop for and what do you look for in a quilt?

LR: Whatever I can find. [laughs.] I found one of the prettiest quilts. Like I say it's an old, old one made just for everyday use. I found it in the back room of an antique store on the floor just absolutely filthy not too long ago and I only paid $25 for it with my daughter, but for $25, we were going to run this thing through the washing machine and see what happens. It took us three times to get the dirt out and it's absolutely gorgeous. These big huge yellow sunflowers on green background. It didn't fade. It didn't bleed. It didn't anything except come clean and it's beautiful and I did find a quilt one time in North California at an antique shop. The family was selling it. The family was selling the quilt from there. It's an antique shop. From their grandmother. I was appalled so I got the whole history of it and grabbed it and ran. [laughs.]

JCS: Well, then you have participated in quilt history preservation in a way?

LR: Yes, and I also forced my mother to go to a quilt documentation day in Maryland as she took my great-grandmother's quilt, that my great grandmother finished when she was 12 years old on April 1 in 1865. It is signed and dated and my mother didn't understand why we were going or what the big deal was but she went and then someone told her how much it was worth and we couldn't get home fast enough. [laughs.] but that was published in a book called A Maryland Album from that quilt documentation.

JCS: Well tell me about the quilts you brought in today.

LR: This is the one I made for my husband's Valentine's for years and some of the squares--there are 12 squares that are about 16-inch square and the middle one is like 32 by 32. It's in the middle, but a big one. Some of them are my own ideas. Some of them are patterns and a lot of them were taken from Elly Sienkiewicz's books [JCS hums.] because she is one of the ones who started the Baltimore Album revival. She is the one who got me interested in my great- grandmother's quilt and Ellie is the one who got me started and I am now in the Baltimore Appliqué Society--[inaudible due to both talking at the same time.]

JCS: Which block means the most to you?

LR: Probably the middle one the big one in the middle because it was for our 40th anniversary. The other ones, they all have a saying. Each year I found something to put on them. Some poetry, something like that, for each one, but the middle one, means the most to me because it was for our 40th anniversary and that is why and I put the symbols in it.

JCS: Please describe the center block.

LR: It's a blue basket woven, I braided the fabric and then sewed it down and it has Iris, Black Eyed Susan, Roses, oak leaves and acorns. Bluebells I think, yeah Bluebells and in the middle is the album and oh the birds--the Baltimore Orioles, the female the nest and the male and some other little Roses and the Album in the middle [pause.] and some more roses I think.

JCS: Roses seem to be your favorite flower for the present time.

LR: Well, this one started out with a lot of roses in it I am now working on a second one, a Baltimore Album because Valentine's Day is still coming around and this one has roses and hearts, but the other one, the new one, seems to be having hearts.

JCS: Is it going to be the same type of theme with the Baltimore influence?

LR: Yeah, so far I only have three blocks done and so far they are more of the snowflake design-the cut out wheels, spokes, hearts for the spokes type where this one is very heavy appliquéd. The new one is all appliquéd too, but it's a little bit different so far. But I only have three blocks.

JCS: Well, I would like you to describe the one with the music.

LR: That's one of my favorite blocks. Instead of making the blocks 16 inch square, I split it in half and half the block is a musical scale in black and white and the other half is just a plain printed white on white fabric and it's a spray of roses, a bud and two full blown roses. I don't know what it says on it, no, I know what it says, 'The music I heard with him was more than music.'

JCS: Nice. Very, very beautiful. Why don't you describe the one with the white flowers?

LR: That is probably my least favorite one. [laughs.] It's very heavy. That one is made with wire ribbon for the leaves and the flowers although it does have an envelope and the blue bird of happiness on it and there just roses. A spray of white roses with green leaves with gold edging on them.

JCS: The one that looks most Valentine is the one in the left corner would you describe that for us?

LR: With the lace? [JCS hums.] The heart. I found a piece of antique lace years and years and years ago in the shape of a heart and I never knew what to do with it. I always wanted to make something for my mother because her birthday is on Valentines Day, but I never got to do that, I could never come up with a wonderful idea so then I made a red heart and then I put that antique heart with lace on top of it and then there is small, small red roses around it. [inaudible.]

JCS: This, this one right here looks like a Folk Art.

LR: It is from a Pennsylvania Dutch Fraktur.

JCS: Alright.

LR: The birth certificate or marriage certificate. It's a Pennsylvania Dutch design, I found in one of those Frakturs.

JCS: Did you quilt this yourself or did you have it done?

LR: No, this one I quilted myself. I'm not against sending them out and having someone else do them because I can crank out the tops faster than I can quilt them, but because this one is for my husband. Although who knows what he is going to do with it. Nothing if I can help it, but because it was for him I quilted it myself.

JCS: How long did it take you to quilt this particular top?

LR: Well there are a lot of projects in between that start and stop and start and stop, but I was pushed into finishing this one by my friend who just couldn't wait to see it finished and kept saying, 'Are you done yet? Are you done yet?'

JCS: What kind of a frame did you use on this particular quilt?

LR: A round one that I just bought at the Wisconsin quilt show last fall. Oh, I started quilting it in a round hoop and ended up juggling that on your legs and your knees and you get all twisted up-it is a pain, but I got this one at--I think it's by [Hinterberg.]. And the top is on a stand and it twirls around and bends to your every whim. It is wonderful. I will be doing more hand quilting with that.

JCS: I don't know if I asked you but what special meaning does this quilt have for you?

LR: Because I did it for my husband that is why it is special, although I just hand it to him on Valentines Day and say, 'Here's your heart,' and he looks at it and he says, 'Oh, it is very pretty.' [JCS laughs.] Then I stash it away with the other ones.

JCS: What do you think someone viewing your quilt might conclude about you?

LR: That I like appliqué or else I'm nuts. [laughs.] Hand appliqué or just I'm nuts to do this.

JCS: You have a lot of appliqué on it that is for sure, but then Baltimore quilting is known for that.

LR: That's true and I only did one block a year, so--

JCS: And what are your plans for this magnificence quilt?

LR: Well, I will stack it up with the rest of them.

JCS: I noticed you haven't put a sleeve on it.

LR: It has a sleeve.

JCS: It has a sleeve?

LR: Yes it does

JCS: It is suitable for hanging?

LR: Yes, it is. I have two grand daughters, if I make the other one for my husband, of course I only have three blocks and it takes at least 12. Got a way to go, but I do have two granddaughters and by the time I finish the second one they will probably be married and maybe then they will be worthy of my quilts we'll see.

JCS: Because we have looked at this quilt, we need to know about your interest in quiltmaking. What is your interest?

LR: Mostly appliqué. I love appliqué, but I am not above anything else that strikes my fancy. Wall hangings you know. Lord knows I have whipped up enough doll quilts. And--

JCS: At what age did you start your quiltmaking? Did I ask you that, I don't believe so?

LR: No.

JCS: What age did you start quiltmaking?

LR: Let me see. 1976 was when I made that Mariners Compass so well maybe I wasn't so old. I am old now, say 35. Something like that.

JCS: Who was your first quilt teacher?

LR: Well, it would have to be my mother-in-law, because she fixed that first Mariners Compass. She had started making quilts after my father-in-law died and was casting around for something and she always wanted to make a quilt, and she made all of her quilts the old way with card board templates and the whole nine yards. Never had a cutting mat or any tools other than needles and thread. She always hand quilted she made a quilt for every--she had 5 sons-she made quilts for everyone of them.

JCS: What is the quilt she made for your husband?

LR: It's called "Hole in the Barn Door"

JCS: And do you use it?

LR: I used it, before [pause.] I made the Mariners Compass. Before I really didn't have too much of an appreciation for quilts so it needs a little help at the moment, but I have it. Of course I can fix it myself. Now my husband is not allowed to lie on those quilts. He can lay on the bed, but he has got to move the quilts.

JCS: From whom did you learn to quilt then from your mother-in-law or--

LR: No, just--

JCS: Catch as catch can.

LR: Yes, I never went to a class for quilting, lots of classes for other things, but never for quilting just reading, trial and error.

JCS: What is your first quilt memory?

LR: Oh, when I was 6 we moved into a new home and I had twin beds in my bedroom and my father's unmarried aunt had her sister-in-law who lived on a farm make two Double Wedding Ring quilts out of feedsacks. And those quilts were on my twin beds. And I used to sit and try to find more than one fabric that matched somewhere on the quilts so I could pick out pieces. One of those quilts is in deplorable condition and the other one is in semi-deplorable condition, but I mine and my sister has hers.

JCS: How does quiltmaking impact your family?

LR: They impact me! My family, my kids all live out of town so when they come that means they are staying over night and that means I have to clean up all my piles of quiltmaking stuff, move all my stuff around as my house is inundated. My husband has to put up with piles and piles and piles of fabric and yarn and this and that and the other thing. Never complains about it, so I don't know. The garage is full of fabric, every nook and cranny, under the beds and every empty drawer. When the kids moved, I got hobbies!

JCS: [laughs.] Have you ever used quilts to get you through a difficult time?

LR: I have thought about that and I don't think so. I don't really think so. I can see where it would be very useful, but I don't. I have been very lucky and I haven't had too many difficult times.

JCS: Well then let's go to an amusing experience from your quilting.

LR: My amusing experience is my first quilt [laughs.] The points are not exceptionally pointy, but they do work well and I had to have that quilt. I saw it, and then I had to learn to crochet the canopy too so I called them my "two year projects." Each one was a two year project, but I got it. I wanted it and I got it.

JCS: What do you find pleasing about quiltmaking?

LR: I go into withdrawal if I can't somehow sew, be doing something with my hands-something-so it's very pleasing, the fabric. [pause.] I can play with fabric all day long if I don't have anything else to do. Just forget the quilt stores; I can play with my own stash. I've got so much of it. I rediscover it every time I open something-I remember this, I was going to make something with that.

JCS: What aspects of quiltmaking do you not enjoy?

LR: I don't like [pause.] putting it together. I don't actually mind the quilting so much, but I don't like putting it together, the batting, the backing and pinning it or basting it. Whatever you want to do. I don't like that at all.

JCS: What advances in technology have influenced your work?

LR: Rotary cutter. I can cut fabric like mad with that. Things like that, I think, are the biggest influences. I don't have a fancy sewing machine.

JCS: Do you use your rotary cutter a lot?

LR: A lot.

JCS: A lot.

LR: A lot, especially in making the quilts for the veterans and the Ronald McDonald house because those quilts are very simple squares, rectangles, all very simple, and you can zip that fabric, cut that fabric in nothing flat.

JCS: What are your favorite techniques and materials?

LR: I would say 100% cotton although on this Album quilt there is everything else. There is velvet. There is wired ribbon. There is silk ribbons. You know, there's buttons even. There is even some ribbons with hearts on it. There is lace on it so you know there is a little bit of everything on that, but in general I would say cotton fabric.

JCS: Have you thought about a design wall?

LR: Yes, but I am afraid I am out of walls. [laughs.]

JCS: You can go up the stairway, huh? [laughs.]

LR: So I use the floor for my layout, if I am making the blocks I lay them out on the floor.

JCS: Well, now let's get to some the craftsmanship here. What do you think makes a great quilt?

LR: Actually color, I think a lot of color makes a great quilt. The blending of the colors although a plain two color quilt can be just as beautiful as a multi-colored quilt.

JCS: What makes a quilt artistically powerful?

LR: The whole total quilt including the quilting, I think. I have seen some exquisite quilting and I have seen some exquisite longarm quilting. I have seen whole cloth quilts that were longarm quilted, but I think the people that can do that are few and far between, but they are absolute masters of it.

JCS: What makes a quilt appropriate in your opinion for a museum or a special collection?

LR: I suppose it would depend on the museum or what they were showcasing. If they were a small regional museum I would think that regional quilts made in there region would be museum quality they are trying to showcase their [JCS hums.] region, their area. You know, if you want, the big museums like the Smithsonian or something or the DAR museum, they've got everything, every kind of quilt and I think every quilt shows something, everything. It shows techniques. It shows fabrics-the whole spectrum.

JCS: What makes a great quiltmaker do you think?

LR: One who likes to match points [laughs.] and likes precise quilting. Those little tiny stitches so many to an inch and they are so, so even and nice and straight and not me.

JCS: Whose works are you drawn to? Do you have a particular designer that you like?

LR: I do. I like Elly Sienkiewicz. I have all of her books and have taken her classes-wish I could take more.

JCS: Why do you think she has influenced you?

LR: It probably started because I did have that quilt that was my great-grandmother's and I was trying to find out information about it so I started reading some of her books and just got fascinated by the whole business of it and the whole history of it.

JCS: How do you feel about machine quilting verses hand quilting?

LR: For my own quilts, I will hand quilt them. For quilts that I am planning to keep. For children's quilts, for the ones for Ronald McDonald, for my grand children, for the veterans, I am more than happy to machine quilt those as I don't expect those to be treasured. They may be treasured, but there is too much wear and tear that they will go through so those I don't have any problems with--

JCS: What has been your experience with the longarm quilting?

LR: I have only had one thing done by a quilt shop, a local quilt shop, that I had done, and I had that one done because the background is black and it's done in all the colors of the Maryland State flag which are black, gold, red and white so there is a whole lot of black in this quilt and there is no way that I would quilt on black fabric. I would not ask anybody else to quilt on black fabric, to hand quilt. So therefore I had that one machine longarm quilted at the quilt shop.

JCS: What was your feeling about it? [pause.] Do you like it?

LR: It's fine. I [pause.] you know [laughs.] it's just fine. It's quilted, and it's not a work of art, but it's a large stipple and it does the job.

JCS: Why is quiltmaking important to your life?

LR: If I can't sew I go into some kind of withdrawal some how or other, you know, then there is some kind of obsession all of a sudden, that I have to sew. Not just quiltmaking, although Lord knows I've got enough projects started and this is supposed to be the year of finishing the UFO's [unfinished objects.] [pause.] supposedly. It's a good thought.

JCS: In what ways do your quilts reflect your community or your region? [pause.] Or do they?

LR: I don't think they do [laughs.] My quilts usually reflect the past. If I'm piecing it they are old patterns, traditional patterns, I don't do art quilts and my appliqué ones are Baltimore Album quilts and they, like this one, are all about love because of the Valentine's Day.

JCS: What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life?

LR: Well my children seem to think they are worthwhile keeping. They are all stashed away and I even the baby quilts have all been stashed away so they must think they are worth something. My sister quilts so in fact everybody I know just about or maybe I just gravitate to people who quilt. My very good friend in Wisconsin, also makes quilts for the veteran's hospital there. They go on Veteran's Day and distribute their quilts from her guild. I have sent her tops. I have sent her fabric. We exchange fabric because she is in Wisconsin so we get different perspective. So she collects fabric for me and I collect fabric for her. We mail boxes back and forth. I do think quiltmaking is growing, but as a leisure activity not as a need.

JCS: In what ways do you think quilts have special meaning for women's history in America?

LR: It may be in some cases the one bright and shinning moment in their life in an otherwise drab existence. For some women putting that fabric together, it's quiet, it's peaceful. That may be the only quiet peaceful moment she's had all day.

JCS: How do you think quilts can be used?

LR: Besides the bed, you can put it on the wall, hang them on the wall, frame them even as a picture. But even quilt patterns are not always made out of cotton but quilt patterns are put into rugs. [JCS hums.] You see rugs with quilt patterns or visa versa. Maybe it was the rug came first and the pattern, the quilt pattern came later. Tiles in the old churches, you see the designs show up on quilts so I think anybody who is a quiltmaker can find something.

JCS: How do you think our quilts can be preserved for the future?

LR: I think that with all the technology that they have now that it is very easy to preserve quilts, with the acid free papers and there is so much, so many quilt magazines and so many people now interested in quilts that the information is all there. It is on the Internet. It's everywhere.

JCS: Well, thank you for your time we appreciate it.

JCS: What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today?

LR: Time. The fabrics are all out there. They're readily available. I think there are a lot of quilt shops, but finding the time to do it of course finding the time to do any hobby I think is always an issue. But time is probably the biggest factor.

JCS: Do you think the many kinds of fabric are challenges to our quilters?

LR: I think the art quilters will use anything. I mean silk, hand dyes, whatever, embellishments. Everybody uses embellishments now so it doesn't appear that the new quilters are strictly only making cotton quilts, cotton piece quilts. If they are doing traditional patterns, they may stick with that, but if they aren't, there are so many other things they can use.

JCS: If you had one wish, what would it be that you would wish to have in your quilting repartee?

LR: A room of my own. [sigh.] A whole room nobody can come in there but me and all my fabrics would be in one place and all my paraphernalia would be in one place. Not up and down the stairs to iron this and sew there and cut down there and find the pins some place else. Of course no one would ever find me. [JCS laughs.] They would know exactly where to find me. My poor husband would probably suffer.

JCS: Do you have a particular quilt that you would want to make [pause.] above all others?

LR: I think that might have been it. That--

JCS: A true Baltimore Quilt

LR: Yeah, I think so.

JCS: Is there anything you would like to add to this interview that we haven't covered?

LR: No, I don't think so.

JCS: I'd like to thank Lynn Robinson for allowing me to interview her today as a part of the Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories and our interview concluded at 3:16 on March 26, 2009.