Joseph Bernhardt, 17, poses with his quilt that won best of show in small quilts at the Tri-Rivers Fair in Salina. Bernhardt is a member of the Rolling Meadows 4-H Club.

Ryan Whelchel, 15, of Solomon, won best of show for large quilts. Whelchel is a member of the Stoney Ridge 4-H Club.

Salina ? If the prizes at this week’s Tri-Rivers Fair are any indication, teenage boys are making headway into that bastion of femininity: quilting.

Ryan Whelchel, 15, of the Stoney Ridge 4-H Club, was awarded the best-of-show ribbon for best large quilt. And Joseph Bernhardt, 17, of Salina, won the best-of-show ribbon for best small quilt.

Bernhardt said he started quilting because he wanted to expand his sewing options.

“You can only make so many pairs of pants,” said Bernhardt, a member of the Rolling Meadows 4-H Club. “In the clothing project, girls definitely have the advantage. You can make a skirt, you can make a dress, you can make a top, so on and so forth.”

Guys, he said, have just shirts, pants and shorts – that is, unless you quilt. Bernhardt’s wall-hanging size quilt, at 28 by 23 inches, featured an Oklahoma State University Pistol Pete mascot and the OSU school colors of orange and black.

Whelchel learned how to quilt from his grandmother, who also taught his brother and sister to sew.

“She wanted us to start quilting to have the knowledge, so that when we began life after college, we could do the normal things she thought was necessary,” he said.

He was about 8 years old when she started teaching the children to make potholders, hand-sewing the whole thing. Next, they progressed to wall hangings and then to a full-size quilt.

Last year, the three Whelchel children all won purple ribbons at the Tri-Rivers Fair, and followed up with a purple-ribbon sweep at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson.

Their family quilts are made of quilt blocks sewn together by machine. Once the blocks are pieced together, the batting and backing layers are sewn on at a quilting shop.

For the fair competition this year, Whelchel made a twin bed-size quilt in shades of blue and green in an interlocking pattern called “Weaver Fever.”

“It’s neat to know all the steps going into a quilt and how much hard work goes into making those, because you’ve made one,” Whelchel said.

Ryan has only quilted, but his sister Kate has sewn a homecoming dress, and she also learned to crochet from their great-grandmother.