Three generations of the same family have won prizes at this year's Canberra Craft and Quilt Fair.
Helen Godden, of Latham, won the major award with a spectacular bird quilt while her daughter Ineka, 12, won the best junior exhibitor with her apple design and Helen's mother, Pat, won a prize for her quilt called Japanese Windows.
Helen's winning quilt is called Freedom.
''It's a quilt about both traditional quilting and art quilting, one side is art quilting, and the other is traditional,'' Helen said. ''The bird in the centre is a black gang gang cockatoo. It's a good Canberra bird, which is appropriate because I'm a Canberra bird too.'
She spent 40 hours painting and 60 hours stitching her winning piece together.
'It's actually all hand-painted,'' she said. ''It's one piece of black fabric. I've painted the whole design and then stitched it, then painted into the stitching'.
Helen Godden has been quilting for eight years.
She works with oils, acrylics and water colours and has also painted designs on to clothing.
Participants in the fair said the event was the highlight of the sewing calendar and many knew of Helen's work and could recognise her quilts.
''The quilting world is huge,'' she said. ''You probably look at this and think 'Oh yeah some ladies like to sew', but in America there is 20million people registered in clubs and guilds. It's a big business.'
The participants enter many quilts and some take months to create.
Helen has a reputation as a tough competitor.
'There is an international quilting association that meets every year in Houston, Texas,'' she said. ''International awards are handed out, a few of which I have won.'
The quilting fair runs until Sunday at Exhibition Park.
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