"She quilts from the heart," Carolyn Reno says of LoVina Payton.
"LoVina has been consistently supportive of the Ozark Quilt Fair for many years," adds Reno, collections manager for the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale and curator of the annual event. "She's always quilting, quilting, quilting."
FAQ
Ozark Quilt Fair
WHEN — 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sept. 12
WHERE — On the grounds at the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale
COST — Admission is free; entry fee is $10 per exhibitor and entries will be accepted through Wednesday
INFO — 750-8165
And Payton shows that support in both large and small ways, April Rusch puts in. Rusch is coordinating the Itty Bitty Quilt Committee's exhibit within the Ozark Quilt Fair, which is now in its 38th year. And Payton, who has been there for many of the events, will be showing three full-size quilts and at least six "itty bitty" ones from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 12.
"A lot of people know her in the quilting world," Rusch says of Payton. "She's really enthusiatic about it -- a good friend of the quilt circles."
Born in Iowa and raised in California, Payton, 78, came to Arkansas with her husband, Harrel.
"I just loved Arkansas right away," she says with the enthusiasm Rusch credits to her. Along the way, Payton raised five children and taught herself to quilt. She started with a kit and asked her grandmother for help, she remembers.
"She took it and she did it, and she quilted it," she says. "I learned don't ask anybody else."
She says she got "serious" when a neighbor in Kansas City gave her a selection of furry fabric. She made a quilt with animals appliqued to it -- an elephant, she remembers, a rhinoceros and a hamster among them. The back was a maroon and white checkerboard. The first quilt she quilted by hand was a Lone Star. "It was crooked," she says frankly. "But it was my first time."
Payton has made pretty much every quilt pattern imaginable and is currently working on a T-shirt quilt for a young friend. She's often known to give her quilts away.
"I love the Shiloh show," she says. "I like to see all the people. Everybody's so friendly, and I get to show off."
Reno expects more than 70 large quilts will join those created by Payton, and Rusch has more than 60 from the Itty Bitty Quilt Committee.
"It's a very, very informal group, we don't have dues or anything," she says. "It's just a group of ladies who get together once a month and primarily work on small quilts -- which we define internally as roughly 20-by-20 inches. We don't do true miniatures necessarily."
But, like Payton, they do them with big joy, just as the quilt fair participants enjoy exhibiting their work.
"It's really the first event of early fall," Reno says. "People come and share stories, exhibitors and the people who come to view the quilts -- memories of somebody or memories of sleeping under quilts.There's just something warm and cozy about it, while at the same time it's very artistic and colorful.
"It's always a good time."
NAN What's Up on 09/04/2015