marilynpretorius

Country

South Africa

Sewing Favorite

Free motion techniques, needle punching, cording, applique techniques etc

Job

Quilt Artist

Marilyn has been teaching various quilt making techniques in South Africa since 1988 and was awarded the Master Class Quilter status by the South African Quilters' Guild. Major awards includes Best Machine Workmanship and Best on Show - Art Quilts at the 2011 National Quilt Festival in Stellenbosch for two quilts as well as Best Use of Colour at the 2015 National Quilt Festival. She has no formal art training but developed her own style of quilt making by experimenting with fabric paints, machine appliqué, various ways of machine & hand embroidery and quilting. Her inspiration comes mostly from the South African nature and all work is original. With the realistically themed quilts, the challenge is to reproduce it as naturally as possible using fabric paint, fibre and threads. With the freestyle quilts, it is finding the balance between intuitive expression and visual cohesion.
Many of her geometric quilts have found homes overseas and she was commissioned to make wall quilts for the chalets of the Kariega Game Reserve at Kenton-on-Sea. Two of her quilts were part of the South African Exhibitions in 2003 and 2004 in Val d’Argent, France at the 9th and 10th European Patchwork Meetings and another was exhibited at the World Quilt Carnival in Nagoya, Japan in March 2004. She also participated in the World Heritage Sites International Challenge between South Africa, Korea and Japan in 2011.
She is an active member of the Dias Quilters’ Guild, Past President of the South African Quilters’ Guild and member of Fibreworks. She was also profiled in the Laslap en Kwilt - Inspirasie uit die Verlede book, a joint publication of SAQG and LAPA Publishers.