Linda's first experience with quilting was at age 10 when her grandmother showed her how to cut out fabric squares and piece them together in blocks using her treadle sewing machine. Linda has been sewing ever since and while growing up she made dresses, stuffed dolls, and quilts for herself and her five younger sisters.

After high school, she attended the University of Utah. She met Michael and after a three month courtship they were married. A year later they had their first son, and two years after that when their second child was surprise twins (a son and a daughter), Linda began working at home. During that time, she supplemented the family income selling her handcrafted gifts at craft shows, craft designs to magazines including Work Basket and Country Handcrafts, and crocheted quilt patterns to Annie's Attic and Herschner's. In 1990, their family moved to a small farm in Charleston, Oregon, where Linda spent the next few years working at home as a medical transcriptionist and raising her children, cats, dogs, chickens, ducks, geese, goats, and finally llamas. She had less time for crafts, but she always found time to quilt.

In 2000, Linda launched her mail order pattern business, M&L Designs, focusing on traditional bed quilt patterns and crocheted quilt patterns. In 2004, she released her first set of one-patch and charm templates designed for use with a rotary cutter and to use up fabric scraps. She is currently working on several more one-patch shapes and a new line of appliqué quilt patterns. Linda currently lives at home with her husband, Michael, and their 7 llamas. Their young adult children live nearby.