The best of show winner at the International Quilt Festival Houston required 75,000 yards of thread, 7 million stitches and 2,000 hours over seven years by two Florida women.

"On This Winter Day" portrays an elaborate nostalgic scene: Bundled-up children make snow angels and skate across a frozen river while horse-drawn carriages maneuver through snowy streets. It won the Handi Quilter Best of Show award, a $10,000 prize, for Nancy Prince and Linda French of Orlando, Fla.

Other top prizes went to both art quilts and traditional designs. Barbara Korengold, of Chevy Chase, Md., won the $7,500 Founders Award for "Zeruah's Legacy," an embroidered applique quilt based loosely on a famous carpet embroidered in the 1830s and now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Three of the top eight prizes went to international quilters, including Kyoko Yamauchi, of Kumamoto, Japan, who won the $7,500 eQuilter.com World of Beauty award for a traditional quilt titled "Gift of Appreciation." Kayoko Hibino, of Japan, and Marina Landi and Maria Lucia Azara, both of Brazil, won two of the festival's $5,000 prizes.

About 60,000 people are expected to attend this year's quilt festival, which opens to the public at 7 p.m. Wednesday and continues through Sunday at the George R. Brown Convention Center.