Three-Day Virtual Quilt Show - Prizegiving

To round up the Bean Sprouts Three-Day Virtual Quilt Show, we are holding a prizegiving ceremony. All winners will be entitled to display this prestigious ribbon on their websites.

First up, the winner for Best Use of Novelty Fabric is Birdie, with this lovely lap-size orange peel quilt. Birdie is obviously an experienced quiltmaker as this kind of curved piecing is very tricky. But the zig zag stitch visible in the detail photo with the snowman makes me wonder whether she used machine applique to "cheat". If so, she gets a big thumbs up from me - I made a "cheating" Dresden plate quilt a while ago and I'm never going back to curved piecing again.

Kethry wins the prize for Best One-Patch Quilt with another lap-size quilt made from what look like recycled or scrap fabrics. Kethry said:

i made these entirely with the sewing machine, and it was difficult enough that i swore at the time: NEVER again!

I believe this is the second quilt she ever made. She also submitted a photo of her first quilt which was basically very similar. I selected the better of the two for a prize, but both quilts were very impressive for a beginner. By the way, Kethry, I can show you a much quicker way to make a quilt like this which turns it into a weekend project. You need a rotary cutter and mat. Mail me if you're interested.

Gabrielle easily won the prize for Slowest Quilter with this lovely red and white quilt. I can't clearly see the design in this photo but it appears to be random with some large squares, some rectangles, and some pieced blocks including nine patches and foundation paper pieced blocks perhaps. It looks very cosy, and the design and colour scheme have stood up remarkably well for a quilt that took so long to make. Too often a design that you loved in the 1980s turns out 20 years on to be a grey-and-red angular monster that brings painful flashbacks of Miami Vice and Duran Duran, or a puffy pastel confection that reminds you of your Wham! and Haircut 100 period. Don't throw such quilts in the bin. In another 100 years they will be charmingly quaint valuable antiques. If I still had all the old things my grandparents threw out because they were old fashioned and dated I could make a killing on eBay.

Congratulations to all the winners. I hope other Bean Sprouts readers feel inspired to have a go at patchwork or quilting, especially those who said they have UFOs (UnFinished Objects) which need to be completed. I think we'll run some more competitions like this in the future.