Tour Lisa Bongean's Home, Studio, and Warehouse

July 25, 2016
Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings brings a modern-day mind-set to primitives through her work with wool appliqué, miniature quilts, and fabric designing.
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Meet Lisa

Lisa has hand-dyed wool, created patterns and wool kits for wholesale and retail, taught wool appliqué and hand embroidery, designed fabrics, invented a tool for making tiny triangles, and written books. Today, all those things are done under the auspices of Primitive Gatherings, a retail store, a 12,000-square-foot warehouse, a studio, and a retreat house in Menasha, WisconsinVisit Lisa's blog here.

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Mini Beauties

The smaller the pieces, the more Lisa loves them. These mini quilts are from Lisa's Little Gatherings book. Although the tiny quilt looks difficult to make, it comes together simply using five 3⁄4-inch-wide strips sewn together. The resulting 1-1⁄4-inch-square Rail Fence units are joined to create 3-3⁄4-inch-square Nine-Patch blocks.

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Sun Room Display

Garden Stitches (hanging) is from Lisa's first 1999 book of the same title, featuring hand-stitched butterflies and garden inspirations. Lisa and shop staff made the mini quilts in the basket and folded quilts in the cupboard.

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A Classic Grouping

Lisa has grouped antique red and white quilts for special effect in the guest bedroom. See a detail of the bed quilt on the next page.

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Bed Quilt Detail

The Feathered Star variation on the guest room bed is hand-quilted.

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A Happy Workplace

Simply Sunflowers, Lisa's first needleturn appliqué quilt (1999), overlooks her lower-level home studio.

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Playful Intent

A big cutting table encourages Lisa to play. Colorful binders store notes and ideas for new fabrics and projects.

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A Wool-Lover's Dream

Primitive Gatherings, known for their hand-dyed wool, felts and cuts fabrics as bolts arrive from the mill.

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Start of the Process

After they arrive, the lengths of wool are soaked and stirred in a trough filled with water and liquid soap.

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Worth the Wait

Primitive Gatherings maintains more than 100 colors of wool, each length hand-dyed one yard at a time. Each yard of wool takes 1-1⁄2–2 hours, depending on the color.

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