A businesswoman is celebrating a hat-trick of successes after scooping her third prestigious award in just over a year.

Sheila Coombes, design director at Brian Yates, Lancaster, earned her latest accolade in the best traditional fabric category at the Design & Decoration Awards, established last year to recognise excellence in design.

Her winning design was chosen from the world's leading fabric companies and was nominated along with companies from the United States, Germany and the UK and chosen by an elite judging panel.

Sheila, who designs from her studio in Silverdale, had already received awards for best contemporary fabric and best fabric collection of 2003.

Her latest winning design, ISTAN, was inspired by the intricate hand carving of a doorway to a Moghul Palace in India. The challenge was to develop a cloth which could capture the exquisite craftsman-ship but could be produced by machine without losing the patina of age or the charm of a hand-embroidered piece.

The border, which runs down both sides of the velvet, was purposely designed with irregular stitching to have the appeal of a slightly worn antique.

Judges felt the subtle embellishment of metallic yarns of pale gold and burnished copper delighted the senses with its light-reflecting qualities and added richness and vitality without harshness or glitz.

Sheila is a director of Brian Yates Interiors, a company which distributes distinctive wallcoverings and fabrics internationally and has a showroom in the prestigious Chelsea Harbour.