Bed Turning

[Eileen K.]

Hello: I am new to this and hope I do this right.... Does anyone know the history of "bed turning" I am trying to find out about when it started, where it started, etc.... the general history of bed turning. Our quilt guild will be doing a "bed turning" this year at our quilt show and we would like to tell the history before we start our program. Thank you for your help.

[Donna N.]

I'm looking forward to replies to this forum. Our guild is also doing a 'bed turning' at our retreat this September. How fun! We also are having quilt historian Mary Elizabeth Johnson present a lecture/slide show one afternoon. I am so looking forward to our retreat.

[Sandy F.]

Don't quote me on this but seem like I read or heard that Bed Turnings have evolved from the old days when a quilter would invite her sewing circle or friends over to show them her quilts. She would spread them on a bed and they would turn them back to see each of them and she would serve refreshments while they oohed and awed. This makes sense to me because when I was a little girl and houses were smaller lots of times there was a bed in the living room so for company to flip back the bedspread to look at quilt(s) underneath is reasonable.

[Sandy F.]

All my quilts that aren't hanging on walls or being used live on the bed in our guest room until guests are coming to stay--then they get to choose which of the quilts they'd like to use. When quilters come to visit, they get a quilt turning.

Pat in Rockport, TX

[Hannelore N.]

I have no idea what 'bed turning' is. Could be because I'm a German living in the UK. But I bet you'd get more comments if you post this message in a more appropriate topic area.

Lorchen

[Hannelore N.]

I have seen several BED TURNING at Guild meetings, quilt lecture / luncheons and quilt show presentations. The BED TURNING can be lovely and impressive method of delivering a lecture and showing off beautiful quilts. The bed turning should carefully planned . I will try to list some of the things you should consider.

1/ Display... Our guild "borrowed" a bed from a local furniture store to place all the quilts on. The bed was mounted on a stage and the audience sat in chairs surrounding the stage. There was a vidiographer who filmed the presentation and a slide show cD and video of the presentation was later sold by the lecturer. An area was roped off for MEMBERS to take their own pictures of the quilts but sometime photography is restricted. YOUR group should make that consideration before the BED TURNING.

2/ CONSIDER taking pictures of your bed turning quilts a couple of weeks a head of time in a beautiful location. Cut your own cDs of the quilts and have them available for a nominal fee at the BED TURNING... Audrey graciously allowed the quilts to be photographed and the profits were turned over to the guild. We charged $10 for the discs that was about $9 profit as all the work involved was volunteer effort of a group. We include a list of the quilts on the disc in a WORD document so the those that were interested could print it off on their own computer.

3/ The quilts were organized from the first quilt (oldest) to the newest quilt by the lecturer. ( This bed turning was a ONE WOMAN SHOW of beautiful quilts, a life time of work of one woman. This could also be a display of historical quilts or a collection) She gave details about when the quilt was made, who it was for, how long it took her to make, various techniques she used, if it was from a retreat or a class who was there, who was the instructor, what she learned... etc.

4/ Be sure to have a good sound system available so that all of the audience can hear what is said by the lecturer. I went to one bed turning where you could not HEAR anything because the sound system was deficient.

5/ Some bed turnings I have seen were presented in a smaller side room. A " DONATION" JAR was placed ( got filled, too) and the presentation was give once every hour on the hour. There were less quilts (25) in this presentation. It was the antique collection of a local antique dealer. But the dealer was able to give detailed information about the block, age of the quilt and she was able to relate it to local history. It was very interesting.

6/ Make sure you have lots of volunteer to help remove the quilts from the bed and store them properly. Our guild would hold the quilt up as the lecturer talked about the quilt... they then paraded the quilt around the stage so everyone got a good look at it, some of the smaller quilts and wall hanging were paraded down into the audience. Some of the quilts were then displayed so people could come up after the presentation and look at the quilts closer. If there were repeated presentations the quilts were arranged again in the order of the lecture.
[list](We used a second bed to put the quilts on so that when we put them on the first bed they were in order ...now that was clear as mud... but I do not know how to explain it better.)
[/list:u]

I hope this helps...