MELISSA
GOTTLIEBSEN
Where do you live and work? I live in a beautiful
part of the world – the foothills of the Dandenong
Ranges, east of Melbourne. It’s a green and
luscious landscape, and if I look out our windows,
I can see the hills behind our house. My workspace
is classed as a ‘storeroom’ on our house plans.
And not an end-of-the-world, apocalypse-is-
coming kind of storeroom! I call it the shoebox.
All four of my children have their own bedrooms,
so I compromised with my workspace. As small
as it is, I can achieve so much in there, and I also
have our huge dining-room table to pop my
cutting board on and bring my sewing machine
out to when I have large quilts to do.
What’s your family structure? I turned 40 last
year and have been married to my gorgeous
husband, Andrew, for 12 years. Together, we
have four fab kids – Lochie is 17, Chelsea, 13,
Cadyn, 11, and Chloe is 7. I’ve worked as a
disability carer for 20 years, and love all the
residents I get to hang out with and the fact
that I make a diff erence in their lives.
Why this particular craft? I’d been sewing
children’s clothing for a few years when I thought
I’d try making a quilt. People had warned me that
it was addictive, but I never really believed it.
I can’t really explain why I love it so much – I think
it’s a mix of being able to take pieces of fabric and
reinvent them as well as, once they are finished,
being able to feel the joy of handing them over
to someone or watching my family use them.
Have you tried plenty of other crafts? es! Y
I forget how many I’ve done and am surprised
sometimes when I’m reminded. I was a very
keen cross-stitcher in my early 20s, took up
scrapbooking with great gusto when my kids
were younger and have even crocheted a few
blankets over the years.
If you weren’t doing this, what else would
occupy your time? d probably still be sitting I’
on the couch watching Dr Phil and Oprah!
Seriously – I never had a hobby, and was pretty
bored, apart from all the usual mothering gigs
in my schedule. I often wonder how I’d fill my
days, now that the kids are all at school, if
I didn’t have my craft.
Who taught you your crafting skills? My mum
taught me to sew when I was a little girl. She
worked in the wardrobe department at
Dreamworld, and if she wasn’t designing Kenny
Koala’s gear, she was sitting in her sewing room
at home. When it came to quilting, even though
Mum is an accomplished quilter herself, I took to
the internet to learn. I’d met a wonderful friend- Gemma – who egged me on during my first
attempt. It was her enthusiasm as much as my
own curiosity that kept me going. I have only ever
had one formal lesson, and that was in a class with
Jen Kingwell. I’d started her Steam Punk quilt, so
asked her to show me how to hand appliqué. It
has proven to be invaluable.
Any good stories from those lessons? The day
I went to Amitie to learn from Jen, it was an ‘open
class’; in other words – bring along a project and
ask for advice/help. I went along with two friends,
who are also big fans of Jen’s, and we are all active
on social media. The other lady in the class was
a beginner quilter and was quite confused by how
enamoured we were by being in Jen’s company.
To make matters even more amusing, a high-profile
American quilter and blogger – Quilt Dad – turned
up at the store, and this poor lady was so confused
about why we were taking photos. She must have
thought we were from a diff erent planet!
What does this craft mean to you? My quilting
has become so much more than just a hobby.
It gives me sanity, has provided me with amazing
friendships and has also given me something
more in common with my mum. Even though
our styles of quilting are completely diff erent,
we talk about fabric, she shows me her machine
embroidery and the projects she’s working on
and vice versa. Quilting has also given me more
than I could have ever expected – my blog, which
was once a personal space for me to share my
life stories, is now a well-established quilting/
crafting blog. I get absolute joy from writing
about all the things crafty I’m doing in my life,
and it has led to opportunities such as this –
a project in Homespun.
Is it hard to find time to do your craft or is it
a profession? I am often asked how I manage
to get as much sewing done as I do. This is how
I explain it – up until two years ago, I had
children at home with me for 15 years. There
was always a little person beside me, and that
made it harder to get what I wanted to do done.
As soon as my youngest, Chloe, started school,
I was able to switch to casual employment,
which in turn allowed me to have a few days
a week at home, where I could do whatever
I pleased. I can generally sit and sew from
9am to 3pm uninterrupted on these days,
which makes a huge diff erence in output.
And now that it’s my business, I make all
of that ‘me time’ matter. I put my head down
and bum up and power through my To Do list.
From where do you draw inspiration? There’s
inspiration pretty much everywhere you look these
days. I used to spend a lot of time on Pinterest, but
then ended up getting confused about what my
style was. Most of the time now, I look at fabrics
I have and come up with something. For example,
for the Heather Bailey charm squares I used for
Kiss Cross I looked at all of the diff erent colours
in the prints; I wanted to do something somewhat
subtle that would still give the prints life. I think
patterns are great inspiration, too. I don’t buy
many quilt patterns, but when I bought Jen
Kingwell’s Steam Punk pattern, it screamed “boy
quilt”, which then led me to all the prints in my
stash to make my 17-year-old the perfect quilt
to lead him in to adulthood.
Why this skill – and this style? Sewing is
something I’ve discovered I’m really good at.
And I really enjoy it – so it’s not time wasted.
Style-wise, it fits with my personality, I think.
I’m not a shy petal, and I’m not out there in
your face, either. So I feel my contemporary
style fits somewhere in between. It’s not going
to fade into the background, but I think it can
definitely make an impact.
What are your favourite materials to work
with? I absolutely love bold, gem-toned
fabrics set against backgrounds of all colours.
I haven’t worked with a white background on
a quilt for quite some time now. I discovered
shot cottons a couple of years ago, and haven’t
looked back. Spotlight has a huge range of
colours in them, and the texture gives my
quilts a little extra eye candy.
Do you ever see yourself stopping or
diversifying? I can’t see myself stopping,
but then again, I said many years ago to my
mum that I’d never do quilting. When I started
my business, it was sewing children’s wear,
and over time, I’ve moved on to quilting.
Adding an online store, selling Aurifil thread,
to my website has been a major step in my
business. It’s been growing steadily since
doing so a year ago.
Do you teach your skills to others? Not formally,
but when someone asks to be shown something,
I’m happy to do so. For example, I meet up with
some sewing bloggers twice a year. A couple of
the girls have asked me to teach them to paper
piece, and I quite happily did. Last meet up, I
taught one of the lovely ladies how to free-motion
quilt. And in a case of serendipity, I am now
teaching my two daughters to sew and quilt,
which is lovely. Diff icult, but lovely!
How would you describe your style? What makes
it unique? m not a patient quilter – I’m the first to I’
admit that. I love projects that are relatively quick
but that pack some punch. I think a lot of the time,
my fabric choices make my style a little unique.
Any embarrassing botch-ups along the way?
Like every other quilter, I’ve made some impressive
stuff ups! And it’s usually a case of my rushing
ahead and not reading instructions properly. But
I don’t tend to get embarrassed by them, because
it’s all part of learning. Although, if anyone were
to look closely at the backing of my daughter’s
quilt, they’d see just how unimpressive my
machine-appliqué skills were at the beginning
of my quilting career!Gett ing to know ...