Biography

After retiring from a career in law, Margaret Grottenthaler turned her full attention to a long-standing creative practice. Her work brings together a wide range of techniques—complex piecing, appliqué, hand embroidery, painting, printmaking, and hand-dyed textiles—often layered to create richly textured, dimensional surfaces.

Drawing inspiration from the natural world, her pieces explore colour, pattern, and form through an intuitive and exploratory process. She incorporates both prints and solids, along with 3D quilting techniques, to build depth and visual movement within the work.

Margaret approaches quilting with a deliberately open mindset. Embracing a “lawless” approach, she moves beyond traditional expectations of the medium, allowing the work itself to guide decisions rather than adhering to established rules.