ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JANET HAMOUS
While the men of the county are feasting on beef at the annual Lion’s Club Steak Feed June 11, the Burns PRIDE committee is offering something a little more refined for the women.
It’s called a “Ladies’ Summer Supper & Old Fashioned Bed-Turning,” according to organizer Sandy Heyman.
“The men have the steak feed, so this is the ladies’ version,” she said
Following a “fancy supper” complete with a dessert cart, participants will gather around a bed piled high with quilts. The quilts will be peeled off the bed one by one, hence the term “bed-turning.”
Heyman said the bed-turning is a method of sharing quilts.
“It’s an old-fashioned term,” she said. “It hasn’t hit this part of the country yet, but it’s popular in the southern states.”
The bed turning is something like a trunk show, where a narrator tells a brief story about the piece.
“They’ll hold each one up and I’ll talk about that particular quilt and tell whatever story it has to offer,” Heyman said. “Every quilt will have a different story.”
Heyman’s knowledge of quilts comes “just from experience,” she said. “I had a partner and we did quilts for national shows for several years.
“We also did judging at state fairs and different places.”
The committee hopes the bed-turning will become an annual event, Heyman said. Since people who collect quilts come up with new ones, she said they’d never run out of quilts to show.
Proceeds from the evening benefit the Burns Community Museum.
“They’re redoing the walls inside the museum,” Heyman said. “It’s an old schoolhouse and the paint is peeling off and it’s needed work for a long time.”
The event will begin at 6 p.m. in the Burns Community Center. Tickets are available from Burns PRIDE members or by calling Heyman at 620-726-5543.
Heyman said people who are interested in sharing their quilts at the bed-turning should let her know by June 4.
“Everyone is welcome to have a quilt,” she said. “We have 150 tickets to sell. But we hope we don’t have 150 quilts.”
