Bree123

It depends. There is a show by me where the owner can enter the quilt into the competition, rather than the quiltmaker. In that case, whoever entered the quilt in the competition is presented the ribbon.

If you are entering the quilt under your name, the ribbon should be yours to keep. If you get any kind of certificate recognizing your achievement, I would make a copy of that for her & give along with a photo of the quilt with a ribbon (whether anyone appears in the photo or not doesn't matter). An appraiser will still value her quilt at a higher amount because it won the award regardless of ribbon possession. Keep your own records since appraisals for your future quilts will also benefit.

That said, if you are asking this as a legal question rather than as a "what is commonly done/expected" question, depending on what is agreed to at the time the quilt is entered into the competition, there are potentially some instances where she would be legally entitled to keep the ribbon (though I think that's a pretty lousy thing to do). If you had already physically given the quilt to her & it wasn't agreed to that you could keep the ribbon then the question becomes whether the ribbon was presented because of the beauty of the quilt or your skill as a quiltmaker (yes, sadly, those legally can be two different things). I would re-read the rules of the competition & see if it says anything in there about whether a non-quilter can be awarded a prize for the quilt. If not, you have a stronger position, but it's still not a total slam dunk.

I really hope you keep the ribbon ... and if it were I, I would never gift that person so much as the leftover thread trimmings from the little bag next to my machine ever again after all this.