Down Unda

What’s 9,499 miles away from The Gentleman Quilter? Australia! Specifically, Melbourne, Victoria.

And this is where five quilts we have quilted for Chrissie will be enjoying the rest of their lives!  While we have had our work go to Costa Rica and the United Kingdom, this is the furthest away so far.  Read on about these five . . .

Last summer we quilted a baby quilt for Chrissie and I knew from her accent when she called she may be from Australia.  She had a grandbaby on the way and was going home for a visit.  The quilt below would be a gift from her and due to her living over an hour from St Louis, we quilted this gorgeous little dino while she waited.  The great thing about where our shop is located, there are shops and restaurants to visit - many are beginning to reopen now!

She had me attach the binding for her to sew down by hand later. The royal blue a perfect compliment!

Recently, she contacted us to see if quilting four quilts for her was a possibility.  I told her how we had figured out a way to accept work from a distance, wearing a mask, etc and if this worked for her, sure, bring them to St Louis.  What I didn’t realize was the time had come for her to return home, Australia, for good.  I thought this was just another visit home.  The absolute worst part? Not being able to hug her as we said our goodbyes!!! Quilters are huggers! But not right now. Air hugs had to suffice.

Below is one she calls her “Covid-Cabin Fever Quilt”.  It has had an interesting life.  It began as a charm pack she bought a few years ago.  She pieced it with the thought of appliquéing something to it, but nothing ever struck her.  Later she made some flying geese, but these never found a mate. So during this Quarantine, she decided to cut up the quilt top, add the flying geese, and then reassemble the quilt top in a whole new way.  The back is pieced with a variety of fabrics on hand and she chose an oriental cloud pattern.

Photo taken on my cutting table. The flying geese appliqued on so the edge to edge quilting will help this wear well.

Chrissie continued to go through her stash during the shelter in place. Below, on the left, you will see Kaffe Fassett fabrics pieced in this brightly coloured quilt.  The back, on the right, is a wide back orange fabric with stunning fuchsia flowers on it.  She decided on a simple tumbling block quilt pattern in orange thread and as you can see in the photo of the back below, the blocks give nice coverage, but do not take away from the fun front.

Photo on left before it was trimmed, photo on right shows quilt trimmed and ready to go home.

Speaking of brightly coloured, her guild was doing a sampler quilt and immediately below you will see it on the long arm.  I loved the bright colours against the white with just a little black worked in for contrast.  This entire quilt was made from remnants.  The fun of this is when you use it, you may (or may not!) remember which quilt you originally used the fabric on. A wide back batik was used for this quilt in a sunflower pattern with a variety of pastel colours.   You can see a bit of it below before it was trimmed. 

Bottom right shows the sunflower batik used for the back.

Lastly, a friendship quilt!  We are asked to quilt these every so often and it’s always an honour.   This one is just darling and Chrissie asked that we keep it simple with just the sashing and border being quilted.  We choose a simple pattern for the sashing and a more decorative pattern for the border.  White thread was used because we wanted nothing to take away from these stunning blocks as you can see in the collage below.   

The photo on the left shows the quilting on the sashing and the photo on the right shows the quilting chosen for the border.

The fabric used for the back was a fun print by Moda and just perfect for this quilt. Below are photos of the front and back of Chrissie’s Friendship Quilt.

Zoom in and see some of the darling embellishments on this quilt!!

Timing is everything. Never fear! That fold was pressed and removed for quilting on the long arm.

Thank you, Chrissie, for using TGQ! We will miss you and happy that we’ve gotten pretty good at social distancing, so 9,499 miles means nothing! We can communicate to share quilt ideas, finished projects, and just say hello every so often. Think of me when you have a lovely flat white or some fresh prawns! Godspeed and happy quilting!