By Evelyn Willis
Journal Correspondent

Jody Boyd had never tried to quilt and as a matter of fact, she never dreamed she would be an extra player in a movie either, but she has done both now.

Her quilting career started when Katherine Watts came to town and taught a lesson on lap quilting. A lesson she missed! However, a friend of hers did attend and passed all the information to her and she took the initiative in July of 1979 to enter into a new adventure of lap quilting with very little training. Lap quilting is done approximately one-fourth of the quilt at a time. As so appropriately named, you hold the fabric in your lap and quilt it and then sew all the larger pieces together making the total design come together, thus a beautiful quilt.

All her quilts are machine sewn but are hand quilted. Any embroidery work is hand made. With needle in hand she works on two or three quilts at a time and has completed at least eighty-four full size quilts and several quilted wall hangings. One of her wall hangings, named "In My Father's House Are Many Mansions", hangs in Rapides Regional Medical Center and is shown in the American Quilter Magazine. She is a member of the Patience Quilters Club in Alexandria and serves as their Historian.

During the filming of the movie Blaze, made in Winnfield about the former Louisiana Governor, Earl K. Long, and starring Paul Newman, Jody applied to be an extra for the movie. She was a little disappointed in this because they were filming already and she had not been called, but her day did come.

There was a break in the filming and the ladies in the wardrobe department decided to do some touring around the country while they were shut down. They headed down Highway 84 and saw a sign, "Quilts for Sale". Venturing down this short drive they came to the Charles and Jody Boyd residence to see what was to be found there. To their surprise they saw some of the finest handmade quilts that could be found anywhere. One of the ladies purchased a quilt for a very nice price. Thinking they were just a group of ladies out for a drive and shopping at the same time Jody, although she was happy to have shoppers at her place, didn't think too much about their being there. When she found out who they were she casually mentioned she had applied for a part as an extra in the movie but was never called. So the ladies took care of that and the next day one of them called to tell her to come to Winnfield to take part in the movie as a "campaign worker" for the governor.

She did and the spirit of a young girl came out as she giggled and told how exciting it was to have Paul Newman shake her hand. Needless to say she had several snapshots of herself and Paul Newman and she was beautiful in her 'dress of the day' and played her part well.

Not only is her dedication to quilting profitable monetarily but also over the years, while raising their two sons, and helping her husband with his "egg farm, she found it to be a place of refuge where she could escape to some peace and quiet.

In the small beginning, people found out about her talent merely by word of mouth. Then someone painted her a road sign advertising quilts for sale.

Her work is one of patience, which there seems to be very little of these days.

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