Margie Garratt

Margie started her career as a traditional textile artist 30+ years ago and almost immediately started teaching from her home, handing on the limited knowledge so recently acquired.

Each member of her family received lovingly made bed quilts, the passion was born and there was no stopping.

The family then moved to the U.K. where she continued creating and teaching local women in Oxfordshire. On her return to S.A. Margie discovered the start of guilds and promptly joined  - “The Cape Quilters Guild” and began taking classes whenever they were available.  

As a contemporary textile art collector her aim is to assemble an historical record of the growth of textile art in South Africa.  Margie initiated and curated Innovative Threads for 10 years until 2005, establishing it as a successful international exhibition promoting contemporary textile art and empowerment craft in South Africa. Being one of the founder members of Fibreworks back in 1997 she has exhibited widely in South Africa, USA, throughout Europe and the Far East; she has received numerous awards both in S.A. and beyond. Achieving particular acclaim for her machine quilting, where she simply draws with her sewing machine, often gathering specimens from the garden or using her own sketches or photographs, she has been honoured as an Icon by the CCDI (Cape Craft and Design Institute). She is passionate about life, loves her work and says she cannot live without colour, beauty and a challenge. 

She spends her days making tracksuits/pyjamas and baby quilts all for charity. Recently after her accident, she has set a challenge to herself of completing 60 of these quilts and plans to have an auction to raise money for impoverished schools up the West Coast, providing them with fridges and stoves for their invaluable kitchens.