Most of us have a favourite colour or shade we are drawn to, a colour that sneaks into many of our quilt designs and takes up more than it's fair share of space in our fabric stash, what's yours?

Do you remember when an essential part of making a playground friend was to find out if their favourite colour was the same or at least didn't clash with your preferred shade. Or when knowing all the members of a bands favourite colours was as vital as being able to recite the lyrics to their latest hit? Most of us have a favourite colour or shade we are drawn to, a colour that sneaks into many of our quilt designs. In celebration of the wide variety of hues you love we are launching a competition to make a small Sketchbook Quilt on the theme of My Favourite Colour.

The quilts will be displayed on our stand at the Festival of Quilts in August 2016. The theme can be interpreted in any way you wish and use any technique, they just need to be three layers and measure 10 1⁄2in x 15in. To help you get started you will find a free piece of 279 Cotton Mix 80/20 Natural Blend wadding with this issue for you to use to make your quilt, kindly provided by Vlieseline (sorry, the wadding is only free with issues bought in the UK).

The winners will be selected by you as we will be asking visitors to our stand at Festival of Quilts to choose their favourite quilts.

Why Sketchbook Quilt?

Well, it is slightly bigger than A4, but not too large to take risks. It is a size to be creative with, and have fun! We will be asking some of Popular Patchwork's regular quilt designers to create a quilt each month between now and the July issue, and our editor Liz kicks off this month with her pink quilt on page 18 of our March issue.

The guidelines are

  • The quilt must measure 10 1⁄2in x 15in, can be portrait or landscape
  • No hanging sleeve is required as we will be using pins to hang them up
  • We need to receive your quilts by July 11th 2016
  • Safety pin a note to the back with your name, address and email address. These will not be on show at Festival of Quilts but are very important as without this we will struggle to return your quilt. If you are under 16 also add your age
  • Quilts will be returned mid September in the same packaging as we received them via standard second class mail
  • We will be showcasing as many of the entries as we can in the magazine in the autumn. The maker will be referred to with their first name and initial (for example our editor would be Elizabeth B). If you are not happy for us to name you please clearly state on the label
  • We have limited supply of spare wadding to send out so if you are a quilter, or run a quilt group, get in touch with Anne De-Lanoy ()
  • The competition is not open to employees or their relatives of My Time Media or Janome UK
  • Prizes and quilt returns can only be sent to UK addresses

Send your quilts to:

Sketchbook Competition, Popular Patchwork/My Time Media, Enterprise House, Enterprise Way, Edenbridge, Kent, TN8 6HF

There are three amazing prizes:

Winner: JANOME ATELIER 5 worth £999.00

Runner Up Visitor's Choice: JANOME DKS100 worth £529.00

Winner Under 16: JANOME DKS30 worth £479.00

PLUS EACH WINNER WILL ALSO RECEIVE A GOODIE BAG FROM THE COTTON PATCH CONTAINING OVER £50 WORTH OF FABRIC, THREAD AND HABERDASHERY!