Stitch Your Heart Out Awards

Coinciding with Beating Around the Bush is the internationally renowned needlework competition Stitch Your Heart Out, where stitchers from around the world submit what they’ve created with needle and thread for both exhibition and judging during the convention.

This year saw an amazing 82 entries, with the winners announced at Gala Dinner on the final evening of our time together. Having kept the results under tight wraps, we were able to surprise the winners of seven of the nine categories on the night and it’s with much pleasure and great excitement that the final two winners will find themselves listed below as we share the winning entries from each of the nine categories.

Our first round of winners are from the Design Diva category, where entrants submit original pieces that have been both designed and stitched by their maker. And the winners are…

Design Diva | Surface Embroidery

Jacqueline Weemaels-Michiels from Belgium – A Little House in Provence

Design Diva | Raised Embroidery

Chrissie Mann from the UK – Stumpwork Figure

Design Diva | Counted/Cut/Drawn Thread

Victoria Laine from Australia – Traditional Band Sampler

The next category is Stitching Up A Storm which is for entries that are re-creations of existing designs. And the winners are…

Stitching Up a Storm | Surface Embroidery

Elma Haley from the USA – Partridge and Pear Tree

Stitching Up a Storm | Raised Embroidery

Sue Barrows from Australia – Elizabethan Casket

Stitching Up a Storm | Counted/Cut/Drawn Thread

Elma Haley from the USA – Jewel Box Bag

10 x 10 Challenge

This year the special themed category was ‘10 x 10’ which was chosen to tie in with celebrating the 10th BATB and required each entry to be contained within a 10cm x 10cm square. And the winner is…

Cheryl Kealy from Australia – Golden Eggs in Silk Nest

People’s Choice

In this category, everyone attending BATB is encouraged to vote for their favourite entry of the competition. After the ballots were counted, the winner of the People’s Choice award is – Victoria Laine, for whom this was her second prize, for her piece ‘Traditional Band Sampler’ from the Stitching Up a Storm – Counted/Cut/Drawn Thread category.

Ellaine Bronsert and Susan O’Connor from Inspirations with Victoria Laine (far right)

Victoria’s sampler includes a panel for each state and territory of Australia represented by emblems and motifs specific to that state/territory.

2018 Grand Prize

How does one choose an overall Grand Prize winner from over 80 entries of such high calibre? This was the very difficult task of our esteemed judges and after carefully considering each entry on its own merits, taking into account technical difficulty, stitching proficiency and overall design aesthetic, they finally came to a unanimous decision.

Drum roll please… the winner of the Stitch Your Heart Out Grand Prize for 2018 is:

Susan Davis of Australia – Or Nué Paisley Motif

Ellaine and Susan congratulating Susan Davis

As the winner of the Grand Prize, Susan has won a complete set of Soie d’Alger Silk Threads valued at over AU$4,000. A huge thanks to Marc and Nathalie from Au ver à Soie who kindly agreed to once again be our major sponsor and generously donated this highly coveted prize.

Congratulations Susan, we can’t wait to see your future designs, many of which will no doubt be stitched using Au ver à Soie!

Special Mention

This year a special mention was made for one piece that unfortunately arrived too late to be included in the competition, but the judges felt worthy of commendation:

Jennifer Donovan of the UK – Hold Onto Your Dreams

We appreciate the time and talent that was poured into each of this year’s entries and congratulate our worthy winners. Remember, time flies, so today might just be the perfect time to pick up your needle and thread and start stitching for Stitch Your Heart Out 2020!