Sew far sew good as Topshop seamstress wins national award

Lily Goulding, 22, who lives in Berkhamsted, scooped the award in the Graduate Showcase at the national Festival of Quilts in Birmingham.

Her final project – Heavy Metal – was a collection of heat transfer prints combined with hand and digital embroidery.

She was awarded the £1,000 Quilters’ Guild BA Bursary Prize 2016, to further her textile studies and membership of the guild.

“Receiving the award has been a real confidence boost,” Lily said. “It was a great opportunity to talk to other exhibitors, visitors and the judges, who were really complimentary about my use of colour, variety of materials and experimentation.”

Lily, who graduated from Arts University Bournemouth, now works at Topshop in Oxford Circus.

She said: “I’m really enjoying using my embroidery knowledge and skills in a fast-paced retail environment, personalising customers’ garments with monogramming and embroidered patches.”

As part of the award, Lily will be exhibiting at the Festival of Quilts in 2017.

The Quilters’ Guild is an educational charity which brings together quilters to promote quilt-making in all its forms across the UK.