Patty Cline

Patty Cline

Patty Cline delves into her life as a quiltmaker. She talks about her design process as well as how she comes up with the ideas for her quilts. Her family's influence on her quiltmaking, her advice to novice quiltmakers, and the impact that quilting has had on her life is also discussed. She ventures into the awards she has won and how she wants to be remembered in life.

QSOS-008

Quilts.

Quilting--United States--Patterns.

Quiltmakers--United States.

Family.

Quilts--United States--Exhibitions.

Patty Cline

Brenda Horton

10/22/1999

Marie Bostwick

Houston, Texas

Heather Gibson

Brenda Horton (BH): My name is Brenda Horton. Today's date is October 22, 1999, and I'm conducting an interview with Patty Cline to be part of the quilt oral history project in Houston, Texas. Patty, will you tell me about the quilt you brought today?

Patty Cline (PC): Well, first of all it's my favorite pattern. It's "Feathered Star." It's kind of odd. My two favorite patterns are Feathered Star and Nine Patch, which is the simplest and I've done a Mariner's Compass and I would say that's the hardest. But I love Feathered Star. And the second quilt I made was a Feathered Star. I wanted to make something for the entry way when we moved into our home, and my house's living area is red, white and blue and I didn't want bright primary colors. I had this fabric and one day it was just like, 'Oh that would look good there.' So, I did this Feathered Star pattern. It came out of Marsha McCloskey's "Feathered Star" book. And that's kind of how it evolved. One thing about it is that I quilt feathers in everything I quilt. Not everything, but almost everything. I have feathered quilting in here. You can't see it and it doesn't matter to me. [tape shut off during loudspeaker announcement.] So, what I was saying was that I quilt feathers in almost everything I quilt. And to me, like this is a dark quarter, it doesn't matter if the feathers show. I love quilting feathers. I just love it. I usually just quilt it in an alternate color thread than what is on the fabric. So, if you do look closely it shows up.

BH: What does feather mean?

PC: These are feathers. See, this is feathered quilting. To me it just enhances the quilt. But when you quilt feathers, I like to have what I call some relief area. I usually draw it out. I tape several pieces of tracing paper together. Like this, before I quilted it, I had this whole quilt drawn out on the tracing paper. Then I played around with how I wanted to quilt it. I learned how to make feathered templates. Some of these are my own, or you can get feathered stencils and shorten them or elongate them or whatever. But anyway, I usually always draw it out on tracing paper. So, before you mark your quilt, you know what you're doing, and you can refer to the diagram. Because once you mark the fabric it's hard to take it off. But anyway, I brought this because it's small to bring along. It's a Feathered Star and it has a lot of feathers in it.

BH: So, it's representative of your work, isn't it?

PC: It's what I really love to do.

BH: I was going to ask you if you did design some of your feathers, do you have a way that you go about that?

PC: I took a Maryanne Fun's workshop back in the '80s, maybe around 1987 or something like that. It was a half-day workshop, and she has little feathers on the market that you can buy. They're separate little template feathers, and she showed us how to design feathers to fit in the area you want. So, I do that sometimes, but you can really take any template and just shorten it. That's why it's good to have a diagram because tracing paper is so easy to erase. And if it doesn't fit you can just erase it and try something else. But then I mark the templates where I stop and where I begin, so when I do mark my quilt, I know exactly what I'm doing.

BH: You mentioned the Mariner's Compass. Were you a part of the AQS [American Quilt Society.] competition of Mariner's Compass a couple years ago?

PC: No, I'm still a member of the Austin Area Quilt Guild, and the Quilters Guild of Dallas. They have a block contest every year, and they asked the blue-ribbon winners to make a block. They do two quilts a year and they keep one and the other is a donation quilt. That year they asked members to do a block. My favorite is Feathered Star, so I did a Feathered Star and then I drew a Mariner's Compass. I drafted a Mariner's Compass to fit in the middle of the Feathered Star. That's the only Mariner's Compass that I've done, and it might be the only one that I do. [laughter.]

BH: You mentioned the Dallas Guild. Have you always lived in Dallas?

PC: No, prior to that I lived in the D.C. area. My husband is a Texan, so all his family are from Dallas and the area. So, I moved to Texas, and prior to moving to the D.C. area I was born in Pennsylvania. Now I live in Austin, Texas.

BH: How do you plan to use this quilt? You mentioned in your entry at your house. Do you use it for any other purposes?

PC: No ma'am. I just have it hanging there.

BH: Tell me about your interest in quilting. How did you begin?

PC: Well, I've always been interested in the Old South and just loved history. I actually signed up to take a class in the early '80s in Dallas for a quilting class and they changed the date on it. So, it was two or three years later before I signed up for another class at Jenny Lynn in Dallas. It was a quilt shop. I was kind of waiting for my kids to get a little older because I was so involved with them. There was something in my heart that I always loved. I was also a docent at Old City Park in Dallas. I don't know if you're familiar with that. We started the Old City Park Quilt Society there. We would make a donation quilt for them every year, and there were just five of us. One year we just fell short of making ten thousand dollars. Our first quilt made seven thousand something, and the second was like nine. The first one was a Feathered Star. That's how I became involved with the Feathered Star. My second quilt was a Feathered Star then. But that was in 1986. So, history was always just in my blood. Old City Park is a park dating from 1840 through 1910. So, I felt like I was just a throw-back to that time.

BH: Do they display quilts there?

PC: There are quilts displayed in the buildings. They have everything from a railroad depot where they sell the tickets on it. They have Victorian houses. As you go around the park, they have a cabin. Then this man who lived in the cabin, Mr. Miller came from Missouri, and he built one of the plantation-type houses and they moved that to the park. Then they have a dog trot. It just goes around the park, too. There's a church. There's a school. There's a dentist's office, a doctor's office, a general store, a bank, a hotel, a station house which the railroad workers lived in. You just take a tour around the park. It's just wonderful. If you ever go to Dallas, you need to take the time to go to Old City Park.

BH: It sounds good. You said quilting was just in your blood. What's your earliest remembrance of quilting in your family?

PC: I don't have any. No. None of my family did. When I say it was in my blood, I've always been drawn to the novels from the past. You know, like American history, the typical "Gone with the Wind" that so many people feel, and just that era. So, I think I've just always felt a love for it. That's what I mean by that.

BH: Do you see it as a craft or an art?

PC: I see it as a craft, but a lot of people see it as an art.

BH: You mentioned that the history of the park was, did you say, 1840 to 1910. And should I preclude that the historical part of quilting is what you're most interested in?

PC: You mean through the park?

BH: Is that how you got into quilting in the first place?

PC: Oh no. No, it wasn't. It was just that my children got older, and I had visited the Park. And when I had more time when they were in school, and I could take the time I wanted, I became a volunteer touring docent. It's just that I had the time to do it then without taking time from them. So, once I got to the park there were some women there that were also members of the Quilters Guild of Dallas. We all met at the park and there were five of us that started the Old City Park Quilt Society, and that's how that evolved.

BH: Would you describe how quilting fits in your life?

PC: How quilting fits in my life? Well, it's my main interest and hobby outside of family or whatever. I think you guys know it's just like part of your blood. You just love it. And if it was gone there would be a big hole.

BH: What is it about quilting that you find most pleasing?

PC: Well to me it's relaxing. I really like hand work best, and I love hand quilting. I took a workshop on machine-quilting. I thought I could take a workshop and I could maybe machine quilt a few little pieces. And I gained a lot of respect for machine quilters because there's a real skill there. But to me in my heart, I would rather hand-quilt. And I can't see myself as a machine quilter. To me, the best part of quilting is quilting it because it brings it to life. I think the hand quilting makes a quilt so much softer. I don't mean to say that machine quilting is harsh, but I don't know another word. Hand quilting is just softer that's the most pleasing aspect of quilting to me and quilting feathers. [laughter.] Quilting my feathers.

BH: What are your favorite materials? You mentioned the quilt being soft. What type of batting do you use?

PC: My favorite right now is wool. I love wool. So, I primarily use cotton or wool.

BH: And do you work in anything besides cotton on your surface design?

PC: I am very much a traditional quilter, so I basically use cottons. I did one that you would call an art quilt for my husband. It hangs in the computer room. And it's very appropriate for that. I did another piece for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, but I'm primarily a traditional quilter. Although I admire the art quilts, it's just not in me. I don't think that way.

BH: Well, you see yourself as a traditional quilter. How does your family react to your quilting?

Do they influence your quilting?

PC: In certain ways. They influence it in certain ways that you know; I might make a quilt for them or whatever. Actually, my daughter...I'm making seasonal quilts. At the time I had one little grandson and I decided to make seasonal quilts like a Halloween quilt that has ghosts that glow in the dark. It's really cute. I'm working on a Christmas one and a spring one. But when you look at it, like the spring one, you don't think of Easter or anything, but in the little patches in the basket blocks I decided to put fabric that had little bitty bunnies. So, you don't just look at it and think bunnies, but if you start looking at the fabric you might see some bunnies. So, they influenced it that way. And of course, you know, husbands always think yours is the best, and they can't understand how anybody could beat yours out in competition. [laughter.] But such is the case. My husband is very good. He encourages me. I'm not the type who has to hide fabric or whatever. He just lets me do what I want and never questions what I spend. It's just wonderful. As long as I don't nag him on his golf, he just lets me do what I want. So, I'm very fortunate that way. Of course, they think everything you do is the best. And that's I think the way it should be, how husbands and families are.

BH: It sounds like your family is an encouragement to you.

PC: Sure.

BH: Do you really enjoy the competition aspect?

PC: Well, I've put quilts in just for display, like the Halloween quilt. I have a quilt here in the Houston show. It's funny, I had the two quilts in the Austin show, and I got many more comments on the Halloween quilt. People thought it was such a fun quilt. You asked about the competition. What I was starting to say is that some I have put in just for display, and some for judging, and certainly it feels better to get a ribbon than not to get a ribbon. But really, I have never made a quilt to get a ribbon. I make what I like, and I enjoy making. I actually could not make something just with the idea of a prize in mind. I make it because I enjoy it. If I didn't enjoy making it, I wouldn't make it.

BH: I think you just answered my next question. My next question was: If you knew you weren't ever going to get another ribbon, would you continue quilting?

PC: Oh, yes. Yes, because there are quilts that I'm doing now, like the spring quilt. It's a wonderful, sweet quilt. But you know in competition it's not going to get a ribbon. That's not the type they would give a ribbon to. My son's Texas Tech quilt I made for him; they don't give ribbons to that type. But I made it and I loved it, making it for him. So, there are many things like that I do, that you do it because you love it and you love the person, you're giving it to. And that's why you do it.

BH: That's wonderful. You mentioned 'fun quilt.' What's your definition of a fun quilt?

PC: A fun quilt. Well, the Halloween one was kind of a pain in a way. I got a little--I had started saying about my daughter earlier when I was doing the Halloween quilt. I started off with two different sets of fabrics, and I was going to do like fall browns and whatever. And then I had this bright orange, and I had these ghosts that glowed in the dark. And I thought I just have to put them in. That's why I bought them. So, then I started incorporating the two different fabrics. I had these ghost blocks that I had bought for a quarter a piece in a, we call it "second chance boutique" in Austin where you take in all your UFO's [unfinished objects.] you don't want or fabric you don't want. And everybody just buys from each other. And I bought those for a quarter a piece and they were just cut up, so you barely had a seam allowance. So, it ended up that the blocks were all irregular shapes, which really in the end added to the quilt. Then I had put a lavender purple kind of color around the block, and it just wasn't working. My daughter said to me, 'Mom, it's the purple that's not working. You need to put black around those blocks.' So, I took all the purple off. The way they were made, some had to be appliquéd on, some had to be pieced. They were just cut in such odd shapes, and the black just pulled everything together. Earlier I should've added that to the question you asked me, but that's how family influences me. Sometimes my daughter has an eye for that, and she'll help me with something that I can't quite get as far as color.

BH: It sounds like you have fun with your family designing.

PC: My husband taught me about ergonomics on my very first--

BH: Tell us about ergonomics.

PC: Ergonomics. My very first quilt had a directional fabric, and he just threw in the word ergonomics. Like I didn't know what to do with that directional fabric and I wanted that fabric in the border. I don't even remember what he said, but he said, 'That's something to do with ergonomics and you this and that.' I can't remember what he said, but he'll throw in something like that. He's actually got a good eye sometimes and will help me if I can't make a decision. He's even once played with blocks on the design wall [laughter.]

BH: Did he scramble them too badly?

PC: Believe me, it didn't turn out anything like what he put up or I put up.

BH: If it didn't turn out the way he put it up or you put it up, did that quilt evolve?

PC: That was my son's Texas Tech quilt, and it was Mary's Block. I don't know if you've ever heard of Mary's Block where it's a square. Then half of the square is a triangle, and the other half has a little square block in the middle of it. That's what the whole quilt was made of, and then you can add little squares along for fillers. Anyway, that was the quilt and it turned out completely different from what he envisioned or from what I ever envisioned playing with the blocks.

BH: But he likes it now that you've finished it?

PC: Yes.

BH: Tell me a little more about your design process.

PC: Okay. I pretty much see something I really like. They say you have to really work on being original or whatever. I pretty much see something and a lot of times I change what I see. But I'm more a pattern-worker where I change different aspects of the quilt. There have been a few times when I've envisioned something and did it on my own. But I'm pretty much the type of quilter that sees something and expands on it. I'm not one of these people that just have so many ideas in their head, original ideas. So pretty much I see something and expand on it.

BH: A lot of people just beginning to quilt have a difficult time doing anything their own. They just want to follow a particular pattern because they don't have much confidence. What would you say to a beginning quilter that they could do that could build their confidence?

PC: Let me back up and say one thing if I might. That's when I first learned to quilt, I had a wonderful teacher in that our first class was we had a stack of papers and they had different blocks on them. And our first assignment was to take a block and draft it to a twelve-inch size, and we could either hand or machine piece it. But we had to take it home and draft it. We had to make templates. It was the old-fashioned way where you make templates. You have to add your quarter-inch seam allowance. What I'm getting to is the basics. I think so many quilters don't learn the basics. I think that loses them a lot of times because I could see something, and I can draft it. One time I even had to draft a Feathered Star and I was able to do that. It wasn't the easiest thing in the world, but I was proud of myself when I had that accomplishment so many of them can't even draft a simple block. They just get lost in it. They just learn to do one pattern and they take a speed-piecing class and come out with one quilt, and then they don't know what to do with anything else. I think that the basics have been lost in quiltmaking today. I think really if we went back to basics, they wouldn't have that problem.

BH: So, if a quilter learns the basics, do you think that would be easier for them to expand on?

PC: I think it would be a starting point. Would you state your question again?

BH: I asked what you think, what advice you would give a beginning quilter. Things that they could do that would help build their confidence in quilting and maybe designing and being a quilter. Do you have any thoughts on that?

PC: Well besides, like I said, learning the basics, another thing that I've always done is to take a lot of workshops. And when you take workshops, don't go in with all the fabric you need to make one quilt. I just take some scrap fabrics that I know I'm never going to use on anything and use them just to learn the technique. I think even if they don't go back to basics, just learning as many techniques as they can because you might not need something in five years or so. But five years down the road you might not quite remember it. But it comes to you, and you say, 'Oh yeah, I learned that.' And you know what to do. So, I think take as many workshops as you can. I know in Austin a lot of quilters like to join, we call them "bees," our small interest groups. They think you join a bee, and you should learn everything there. I think it's a wonderful sharing experience in a bee, but I think it's really good to take as many workshops as you can. Because when you take the workshops, you learn techniques, and I think that helps. Also, you know, photographs. Look at photographs. Look at other quilts. Just walk around this show and it'll give you inspiration. But you could have all the inspiration you want, and if you don't have the skills to do it, you're nowhere. So, I think you need to learn techniques and know some of the basics.

BH: What do you think makes a great quilt?

PC: A great quilt. Well first of all, I think the first thing is when you look at a quilt and it just stops you cold. And you just say, 'I love that quilt.' I don't know what makes it. To everybody it's different. I mean you might pass by something that I love or vice versa. I think quilting makes a quilt. First of all, visual impact, and that's all subjective; very subjective. I think the quilting is what brings a quilt to life, even if its machine quilted. Because the machine quilting on quilts anymore is just wonderful. But I think you could have a quilt that's really wonderful, and if it's not quilted really well it really loses a lot.

BH: What would make a great quilter?

PC: What would make a great quilter? I don't know. I think we're all great quilters if we do what we love. I really think if you love what you're doing, that makes you a great quilter whether the next person likes it or not. If you're happy with what you've done and you're pleased, I think that makes you a great quilter. A lot of people say just finishing a project, but I think it's just loving what you do makes you a great quilter.

BH: You mentioned finishing a project. Do you have many unfinished projects at home?

PC: Well, I used to not work on my next project until I finished the one, I was on. Now I have to say I do have several. And I might say that the first five years I quilted, I was a purist. And I did everything by hand. I mean I did a queen-sized Feathered Star by hand. It even had a lot of little spacer strips. There was not machine stitch in it. I've done a Log Cabin like that. It was just sixteen blocks. And I think I'm crazy now because, I mean a Log Cabin you could put together that fast with a machine. But I mean, basically I did everything by hand. But I love hand work.

BH: How do quilters learn the art of quilting, especially loving what they do? Do I need to rephrase that? You mentioned that you would quilt regardless of anything else.

PC: Right.

BH: And you've developed a love of quilting. How do you think that's developed? How has it developed for you?

PC: I loved quilts before I ever made a quilt. It might be that it's the texture and the fabrics on the quilt and the texture. Something about just wanting to just hug it or just hold it and love it. Even like a piece of fabric that you buy, you say, 'Oh I just love this piece of fabric.' There's something in us that we just love it. I don't really know how else to answer that.

BH: That's a great answer.

PC: It's just loving it. I'm talking about things we don't do. Just seeing something hanging up in the show in some booth or whatever. Just absolutely just loving it.

BH: You mentioned using them for display, wrapping up and feeling good. What are all the ways that you see quilts as used? How would it be appropriate to use a quilt?

PC: Well, a lot of quilters I know...I just heard the other day, yesterday or the day before, 'Oh, they don't put them on beds anymore. These aren't quilts.' But I have them, I shouldn't say all over the place in my house, but five or six different areas in the house. And when they're down the walls just look so bare. I think they add a lot of texture to the walls. I don't keep them on my beds except when I have company. It's for a simple reason that my guest bedroom is downstairs, and the dog likes to lay on that bed. So, I just went and bought a cheap comforter from Target because she lays on it. I'm afraid they're going to ruin them. But when I have company, I'll put a nice quilt on the beds. But I think we can use them anywhere they look good. And just to cover up if I can't sleep at night. I wake up in the middle of the night, I'll just grab a quilt and go to the guest bedroom and just snuggle up under it. I have one I like to use for summer and one I like to use in the wintertime. And I pulled another one to use the other night when I couldn't sleep. I think they look great on the walls. I think they look great on the bed if your animals and little kids don't ruin them. I think they can be used wherever we want. I have no objection to using them wherever.

BH: Where's the most unusual use you've seen?

PC: Unusual use I've seen? I don't know. I've made one for a cat. [laugher.] I think lots of people have made--She was getting older, and I thought 'I'd better hurry and make her a quilt.' She lived to seventeen years and five months. And when I made her a quilt, they diagnosed her with leukemia. She lived another two years and five months anyway. But she had her quilt. Now my cat uses it, the one I have now. But I mean, you love them. So, make one for yours. I don't know if that's unusual. I think the most unusual thing I saw was my father-in-law had one just wrapped around some machinery in the back of his pickup. I said, 'Paul, I'll give you an old blanket to put over that if you'll give me the quilt.' It was in very bad disrepair, but at least I rescued it before it was completely in tatters. But, you know, some people do that. We've got to rescue them.

BH: Right. That's the way I feel. We have to rescue those! I'm curious about your focus in quilts. Are you more interested in the process of designing and making, or are you more interested in the finished product? You know, some people are process-driven, and some are product-driven. How do you see yourself?

PC: I see myself not in the end-product but in enjoying what I'm doing at the time. Going up and playing with the fabric. When I got my own room I said, 'If I ever get my own room it's going to be called a studio.' So I call it a studio. So going up in my studio and playing with the fabric. You can just lose yourself, forget your problems. I think that's the most fun in doing it. I don't care. It usually takes me a year to do something, and I might do other little things in between. But enjoying the process is the most fun for me, what I get the most out of.

BH: When you lose yourself, is it like therapy?

PC: Yes. And so is Old City Park in Dallas, the historical part of that. We used to have quilting bees in the park where people came around. And they tell you, 'Oh my grandmother!' and that sort of thing.

BH: Do you think historically quilts have been kind of therapy?

PC: I remember reading in one of the books I read, the women who went to West Texas and they came from these lush states like Virginia and Kentucky. And they went to the West Texas plains because there was free land. They looked out as far as the eye can see, and there was nothing. And those women, they built their homes into dug outs into the little mountains, or little hills. And the only beauty they had in their life was their quilts, the color that the quilts gave in those little dirt dugouts. And quilts have always given pleasure to women.

BH: I would have to agree with that. In what way do quilts reflect who you are?

PC: It's just a part of what you love. I don't know what else to say. It's just a part of what I love in life. One of my favorite things.

BH: What would you like to be remembered for either just in life in general or with your quilts?

PC: Well in life in general I'd like to be remembered as a good sister and relative, friend, somebody that was kind to others and that cared about others when they need to be cared for. And quilts, just that maybe they gave a little warmth or pleasure to somebody in their lives maybe when they--Even now before I'm gone, I don't want to talk about when I'm gone, but like my son has his Texas Tech one hanging in his bedroom in his apartment. He says sometimes he lays in bed and just looks at it and he thinks it's neat. I put all kinds of symbols of fabric in it, lots of girls in there, little two-inch blocks of girls. Just a cactus for West Texas, for Texas Tech. You know, but just that they give pleasure to people. That whoever has them just loves them. I made my niece one and she's told me numerous times just how much she loves it and if she's had a bad day, she'll just cover up in it and it makes her feel good. Things like that.

BH: I noticed that you labeled this quilt very carefully on the back. Tell us about that.

PC: Well, I like to take a block, and this isn't a Feathered Star, but it is a star. I like to take a block out of my quilt and put it on the back and use it for the label. It just seems to tie it in. Like if I do a basket quilt, I'll put a basket on the back. I'll make an extra basket, usually one smaller. Usually, I'll have a left-over one so that's real good, and just put it on the back and make the label. Also, I don't have all of my quilts signed underneath. But I like to somewhere maybe sign my name on the quilt, usually on the fabric itself, and date it and put where it was made.

BH: Yes, sometimes that's good because it might mean that somebody could take the label off and clean it. And you've signed the actual quilt. That's a good idea.

PC: Sometimes on my labels, on this one I don't have it, but sometimes on my labels I'll also put the awards that I've won on that quilt. I was actually surprised that I didn't look ahead of time, but I usually do put what award I won on the label, and I don't have it on this one.

BH: Have you won many awards?

PC: I've won a few. I've only entered in Austin and Dallas, except this is the first year I entered in Houston. And I've won a few of them.

BH: What is your most special award? Or most challenging accomplishment?

PC: I don't know that I can really say I have one. Maybe getting a quilt into the Houston show. I have to say that. Yes, that was challenging.

BH: Into IQA. [International Quilt Association.]

PC: Right, into IQA. That was my most challenging. I was very happy when I heard it got accepted. Yeah, that was my most challenging one.

BH: Do you have a quilt planned in your future. Or do you have a project you're working on now?

PC: I'm working on little paper-pieced, well they're not little, ten-inch, paper-pieced baskets. Like I said, it's going to be my Easter/spring quilt. Then I have some appliqué blocks that I started in 1990, and I made nine of them. I got tired of them because the quilt required sixteen and it was very repetitious. I've been in the mood lately to do those and make the quilt in a different setting. Like something like this and have areas of quilting in it where I don't have to make more blocks, and I have the perfect setting for it. I also started designing the appliqué for the border to do that, and it's in pinks and greens. I just love the color combination and I want to put a lot of quilting into it. For my next project I'm going to make two little miniature quilts, one for my son's girlfriend and one for a Christmas gift for someone in our bee. I don't always, but I like to make a little miniature quilt and buy a cute little bear, or something dressed up and give that as a Christmas gift. I found the most darling pattern here in Houston. I had in mind what I was going to do, and I thought I'll wait and see. In Houston I found something so sweet. So that's what I really need to get busy on now since Christmas is around the corner.

BH: We really appreciate you giving us your time today. Patty this is wonderful.

PC: Thank you for asking me. It was a pleasure and an honor to be asked.

BH: We're ending the interview at 11:10. I'm Brenda Horton interviewing Patty Cline.

International Quilt Association

Quilter's Guild of Dallas

Old City Park Quilt Society

Feathered star

Mariner's compass

Marsha McCloskey

Marianne Fons