Becky and Joe Hartley - Broom Making, Quilting, and Life

Joe and Becky Hartley - 2026 - At their home, in the broom making shop. Display of their pieces. - Photograph by Lorynn Hunt.

When I first met Joe and Becky Hartley, 4 or 5 years ago, I had just took up the art of broom making and was beginning my first quilt that I would give to my Papaw. I don't think there could have been a more timely first meeting than when I stumbled into their booth, Hartley Handmade - Brooms and Quilts, that special day! Now you may not believe this, but I am going to tell you anyways, broom making is not exactly something found on the mainstream of household craft hour, so for me, I had hit the jack pot. I had spent a year or two learning from online resources but now, here in living color, someone who actually did this beautiful craft. Little did I know that that meeting would turn into years of friendships!

Finding people who do what you do, can mean a lot to a person, at least for me it did. It’s this idea of getting around people who get excited, understand the creative side of you, and like to talk about it. So when I was invited to the Hartley’s house and broom shop, it was an “oh and awing” time for me.

As I was taken on a tour of their beautiful farm house, Becky showed me her quilting room along with all the beautiful fabrics, finished quilts, and patterns that she had wonderfully organized. Once you get bitten by the fabric bug there is no turning back, if you know, you know. I think my favorite thing she showed me was, really, her excitement for making quilts, it something special.

Becky Hartley - With one of her quilts on her swing at their farmhouse - 2026 -Photograph by Lorynn Hunt.

Becky was raised just outside of Upland on one of Purdue’s research farm, where her father was the manager, called Miller Purdue Farm.

“He helped deliver over two hundred calves, and he would track the different elements that went into it all.” She explained, “I would see bullfights out in the field, they would through each other over the fence, and we also got to ride the horses that were owned by Purdue, that way they would stay in shape and such.”

She began sewing when she was 10 for 4h but shortly was disenchanted by staying within the boundaries.

“I didn’t really want to do it, but Mom made me because that is what we did. I sewed for a couple of years, but I started making other things and began realizing I didn’t just want to just make a skirt. I wanted to make what I want to make.”

She told me a story about making her own clothes when she was a teenager that, I believe, really shows her amazing personality.

“We had a family reunion and I stayed up till 2 o’clock in the morning to finish making a shirt to wear. As if I didn’t have anything else to wear, but that is what I wanted to wear.” She shared with a smile.

With her mother being a good teacher and an excellent seamstress herself, Becky tells the stories of how her mother would make all their cloths.

“She sewed almost everything we wore. I remember trying on an outfit with my eyes closed so she could make it for me for Christmas.”

This would all seam together the different chapter of her life as Becky had children, she would do the same.

“I remember counting the clothes in our daughters’s closet one time, because you can get a lot out of a yard of fabric when they were young, and there was 50 items I had made them.”

Soon life got busy and Becky took a break from sewing.

“I was working full time and the kids were in school, so I didn’t sew for quite a few years. We did produce and I did a flower business.” She explained.

But like all good things, sewing began making it’s way back into her life and she started making again.

“We had a family at church that was having a baby and I didn’t want to go to the store and buy something, so I got some of my fabric out and began making a baby quilt. It was two days away and I got it done. Then every time I knew somebody was having a baby, I would make a quilt.”

Becky Hartley - Displaying her quilt at her farmhouse - 2026 - Photograph by Lorynn Hunt.

Now with over 30 handmade, beautiful quilts for sale, I think it is safe to say that she hasn’t stopped sense. Like her mother before her, she has become and a teacher of this craft.

“When our grandkids come and spend a week with us, we always spend a day back in the sewing room. They are 7 and 8 years old, and they love to just play with the scraps and scissors. They will cut and cut them, away to nothing.” She laughed, “Last year we made a pillow cover and they picked out what they wanted from the scraps. It was fun to see what they picked out because they didn’t care about perfection, they just were having fun. This year we made tote bags to carry books in and they loved it.”

Quilt by Becky Hartley - 2026 - Photograph by Lorynn Hunt.

Years back from when this interview took place around their kitchen table, I stood in the sewing of Becky home and instantly knew there was something grounding about these new friends I had just made.

As we continued to the broom shop where Joe worked, I was excited to see how he made brooms and the equipment he used. I had no idea the amazing history that was held within his shop and knowledge of this craft.

Joe Hartley - In his broom shop at his farm - 2026 - Photograph by Lorynn Hunt.

Raised in agriculture himself, it was no surprise that he would become a farmer as well.

“When I was a kid we had livestock like cows and hogs. We planted corn and soybeans, and bailed hay and straw. But as I was beginning to become a one man show, we started to just specialize in soybeans.” He shared.

When speaking with him about what he has seen change in world of farming, He began telling me about the equipment.

“With the technology today, it boggles my mind. I mean technology passed me up 20 years ago. I am not a tech person. We went from driving a ford tractor with a coal packer, spring plow when I was seven. That was where I started. No power steering, no cab, you just sit with your left foot just above the exhaust pipe. Now you can sit in a tractor, turn around in the seat, be talking on the phone, and not worry about a clutch; while the tractor does it for you. I never thought I would have a tractor like that.” He shared.

Joe is a 3rd generation broom maker. Starting with his Grandfather Hartley, to his father, and now himself.

Joe Hartley - In his broom shop with a newspaper clipping of his father as a broom maker. - 2026 - Photograph by Lorynn Hunt.

“My grandfather Hartley was a broom maker. People grew their own broom corn, harvested it, and brought it to him. He would take all the seeds out, spread it out and dry it. Then he would sort it by size. If he had enough broom corn to make twenty brooms, he would keep 10, so that he would have brooms to sell.” He explained.

Joe’s father inherited the same broom equipment his father used and began making brooms himself.

“Being a typical farmer, He didn’t have time for any hobbies when he got the equipment but he decide one day that it was time to start making brooms. Grandpa let him do everything but actually wind the broom when he was a kid, so he had a lot to learn, but he eventually figured it out. He kept improving his craft even though he didn’t have anybody to teach him.” He continued, “He showed me how to make brooms one time but I was really busy, and wasn’t ready to start making brooms.”

But as tradition should have it, Joe soon got bitten by the bug of broom making and has developed his own stamp of art in this long running family of craftsmen.

“When I started making brooms, I had to start learning again. I found some information online about a man who was making broom in Mountain View, Arkansas. They the most artistic brooms I had ever seen, so I got a hold him and he gave me lessons.”

No two broom makers, make brooms alike but the basics are the same, and a good broom can last a life time.

“I remember a customer came up to me and she had one of my dad’s brooms. She said she used it everyday and she loved it. It made me so glad because I got to thinking that broom had to be over 17 years old, it had been around for a long time.”

Joe Hartley holding a broom that his father made - 2026 - Photograph by Lorynn Hunt.

Now finding myself in the broom shop of this 3rd generation broom maker, I couldn’t help but notice the pride he had in the equipment and tools, let alone the knowledge.

“This equipment has been in my family for over a hundred years. I still have the needle that my grandfather sewed his brooms with.”

A family legacy kept alive through generations of craft, and now here I stood in mist of it all, a stranger, admiring the work of Joe Hartley and the men who came before him.

You can own pieces of these two artists through their shop, Hartley Handmade - Brooms and Quilts, and allow me to say, it is worth every penny. They have a facebook page which I will link down below so that you can follow where they will be, as they set up for different festivals.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070690047254

Sense meeting the Hartley’s, I can truly say how much they cherish the crafts they do. I have been inspired over and over again by their work, and I am incredible honored to call them friends. Thank you Joe and Becky for allowing me to learn under you, and for doing this interview!

Becky and I with my first quilt - 2023 - Photograph by Joe.

Joe showing me how to make my first hand broom - 2023 - Photograph by Lorynn Hunt.