Ms. Hedger Extends Talents to Quilting World

Ms. Bobbie Hedger, known to Bradley County for her twenty-seven years as the owner and florist of Warren Floral Company, has now extended her talents to the quilting world.  Ms. Bobbie is a novice quilter with only three years of experience, but she recently won a blue ribbon at the Bradley County Fair for her black and white pinwheel quilt.  She has made a total of twenty (20) quilts in the past three years making her a fourth (4th) generation quilter. Of all the patterns, the “Pinwheel” is her favorite.  Her eyes light up as she says, “I love how the colors all come together.”


At the age of eighty-five, Ms. Bobbie made her quilting debut by using her mother’s Kansas City Star pattern cut from newspaper.  She relates how she sewed pajamas, handbags, aprons,  and shirts, but quilting was totally new territory.  As a child living in Oklahoma, Ms. Bobbie’s grandmother would take her window shopping to make her dresses to wear, but still she never learned to quilt.  Ms. Bobbie says, “I was always afraid, and too,  no one would  teach me.  I just thought it must be hard.”  After she was married in the early 1950s,  she went downtown to Leonard’s  in Fort Worth, Texas,  and bought  material at 4 yards  for $1.00 to teach herself how to sew.

She began sewing pajamas, handbags, shirts and aprons on a Singer sewing machine she bought at a rummage sale; then fifteen years ago, she purchased a Singer in a cabinet which she calls her Cadillac.


Her  hobbies are collecting Santas and antique dolls which she has over 700 Santas neatly displayed in curios and her choice doll collection is the Woodrow Wilson series.  Mrs. Bobbie also does needlework, crochets, and cross stitches, but she will quickly state, “A knitter I am not.”  But a quilter she is.

She is presently working on Broken Dishes pattern quilt which will be on display at the local library along with her other quilts she has made in the past three years.  Her next project will be the Flower Garden pattern and that will be a fourth generation quilt in the family.  Ms.Bobbie has passed her artistic ability to her four children--Ricky, Butch, Tammy, and Lois,  who are all involved in some kind of craft projects.

To celebrate her 88th birthday and showcase her quilt collection, Ms.Bobbie Hedger's quilts will be on display at the Warren Branch Library from December 2 - 6. A reception in her honor will be on Monday, December 2,   at the library from 10:00 - 12:00.

 --Jonalyn B. Reep