About
Marge began quilting in 1983 during her study for the City and Guilds of London Embroidery Certificate at Newlands College in New Zealand. In those days Patchwork and Quilting was part of the curriculum and as it happened, Patchwork was the first topic. She continued with and completed the certificate with distinction but has done little embroidery since. Patchwork won over.
Over the years Marge has won many awards, top Contemporary Bed Quilt in the ENZED Competition in 1990, Best of Show at the 1st Wellington Symposium in 1993, and again at the Hamilton Symposium in 1997 and Best Traditional Quilt at the 2011 Queenstown Symposium amongst other prizes. She has exhibited quilts, both in competitions and invitationals, in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Germany, UK, USA and France. She has also had three solo exhibitions and had a quilt accepted for the 1995 Quilt National Show in Athens, Ohio, USA. Her quilts are held in collections in New Zealand, USA, Macau, UK and Sweden.
She has taught in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA and judged shows all over New Zealand. She has also contributed articles to various Patchwork magazines: New Zealand Quilter, Quilters’ Newsletter and Miniature Quilts (both USA), Magic Patch (France) and Popular Patchwork (UK). Recently she was featured on a segment of a NZ TV craft show, Hearts in Crafts talking about and showing her quilts. Her work has been published in many books and magazines.
From the beginning she has designed her own quilts, first with half square triangles used freely, then a number of variations of log cabin block designs, eventually developing a method of developing kaleidoscopic designs based on a hexagon. More recently she has been making quilts by hand, using the age old method of English Paper Piecing and hand quilting but also making quilts by machine using simple large squares and rectangles with wide borders and showcasing the fabrics.
Colour and pattern drive Marge’s quiltmaking and her favourite fabrics are “splodgy” commercial prints. She does occasionally use hand dyed or printed fabrics but these are almost always produced by others.
