The Scrappy Appleyard

Have you all ever been to a "Bed Turning"?

If not, I am bringing one to you from Yuma Arizona where we did a show in January. We love those gals down there!!

A Bed Turning is usually found at a local guild show. There is a bed with a pile of quilts on it, and as each one is held up and shown, one of the guild members tells the story behind it. For a lover of quilts it is worth that alone going to a quilt show for.  The history and stories are heart endearing.

This lady is Lovabel Rice. And oh how lovable she is!! She is 92 years young and quite a force to be reckoned with. I felt honored to have met her and to hear of her quilts. Her quilts were hanging in the bed turning room. This one is her favorite and is all hand appliqued.

She started quilting when she was 16. She went to Woolworths and bought her first block for 10cents. The blocks had both hand embroidery and hand applique. After she finished all of her blocks her grandmother hand quilted it for her adding sashing. The quilt is below:

Here's the story:

Here's another one of her magnificient hand appliqued quilts:

These patterns are usually done with raw edge machine applique but Lovabel did it mostly by hand applique. An amazing feat when you see the work close up and how tiny some of the pieces are.

The second morning of the show, I was in the bed turning room at 9 0'clock sharp determined to meet this fine young lady. She was only going to be there for a little while. As I stuck out my hand to shake hers, I was shocked at her strong and confident hand shake. And after talking to her found out her only health problems were that she was hard of hearing and she was on blood pressure medicine. That was it. Oh to be as productive and active like her at her age. I hope I am sitting around working on quilts when I am at the tender age of 92 with grand children and hopefully great grandchildren around, patiently passing on this wonderful medium for story telling to future generations.

Speaking of bed turning, I am going to go in and turn in to my own bed, and bring the rest of this story to you in the morning!