The Whitehall Ledger - Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana

Chris Proffer has been a proud member of our Whitehall community for 24 years and has made quite a name for herself.

Chris, known throughout Whitehall as the Dysfunctional Quilter, started her sewing career at eight year old under the supervision of her paternal grandmother. She was raised in Moscow Idaho where she spent her childhood and high school years. They worked on baby doll quilted blankets with the help of a treddle sewing machine and some cattails that were dried, then used for the batting. Her Grandmother, orginally from Germany, lived through the Great Depression and taught Chris many tricks and gave good advice. She was the inspiration for Chris's sewing career.

When her great grandmother on her mother's side passed, she left behind a few unfinished quilts, which were given to Chris. Soon after, her grandmother upgraded the sewing teaching from small items to real applique and larger quilts. At sixteen she was hooked on quilts and has never stopped. Around the age of seventeen she took to making clothing as well, but that never held the passion for you she foundin quilts.

Chris left for Korea at the age of twenty four where she lived for six months. She still remembers the differences in the type of living while there. She remembers fondly trying to explain to a set of children why she and her friend had different accents. The biggest memory she has is of the bathrooms; many Korean homes had outhouses known as honey pots. An American bathroom was a luxury, as one would have floor to ceiling tiles, but still a hole in the floor instead of a toilet, as there was no plumbing available.

Chris and her family moved from Korea to Fairbanks, Alaska. She soon grew to need towns that were closer together and moved to Texas where she went from 50 below to 50 above. She spent two years exploring Texas before she moved her two daughters up to Washington state. There she met Rick, her current husband, a veteran. Chris's two daughters and Rick's daughter were the catalyst behind the two marrying, as the girls thought they were a great match. The two have now been married forty-two years.

Chris and Rick found their way to Whitehall where the settled, with Chris opening the Dysfunctional Quilter Quilt Shop in 2010. Ever since, Chris has been working hard to keep the community supplied with fun quilting supplies and fabrics.

"I love ripping up fabric and putting them back together," Chris said, which leads her to create wonderful quilted works of art, and she shares these skills through sewing classes for kids and adults.

Chris loves Whitehall because of the friendly people and easy lifestyle; the town always has a friendly and welcoming atmosphere, where everyone eventually gets to know one another. This dysfunctional quilter is a hard worker with loyal customers, who simply loves Whitehall.