“Picture This! Pictorial Quilts (and more) of Ventura County” is the theme for the 12th Annual Heritage Valley Festival of Quilts to be held September 26 through January 9, 2011, at the California Oil Museum, 1001 E. Main Street, in historic downtown Santa Paula. The exhibit showcases the variety of techniques used by textile artists in portraying their surroundings. The public is invited to attend the opening reception on Sunday, September 26, from 1-3 PM. Light refreshments featuring local ingredients will be served. A short gallery talk by guest curator, Linda Wilkinson will be at 1:30. The California Oil Museum is open Wednesday-Sunday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Admission: Adults $4, Seniors $3, Students (6-17) $1, Members/5 & under Free.

Quilts on display include the Santa Paula History Quilt, made in 1980 by the Santa Paula chapter of P.E.O. This quilt with 30 blocks representing historic buildings and activities is a repository of Santa Paula’s heritage. The women of this group worked from designs by Ventura County graphic artist, Leavitt Dudley, to create this quilt. It is normally on display at the Blanchard Community Library, 119 N. 8th Street in Santa Paula. The library staff has taken great pleasure in sharing this quilt’s history with school children for three decades. As part of the library’s centennial celebration this year, the quilt has been cleaned, documented and rehung by guest curator, Linda Wilkinson. It will return to the library following the close of the exhibit. Students from Mr. Arguelles’ AP History class at Santa Paula High School have also studied the quilt this year as part of their exhibit at the museum in the spring, 2010.

Other quilts on display depict the agricultural bounty of the area by Marilyn Smith and Shirley Kelley, the variety of life from seashore to tidepool to the ocean depths in “Down by the Beach” by Debbie Bayer and Shirley Kelley has designed a view of Anacapa Island with fireworks representing the Ventura County Fair. The little chapel that was on Darling Road in Saticoy has been painted on fabric by Martha Whelchel and framed with a pieced border. Sue Harding has created a fabric collage of the Faulkner Barn. Pat Masterson created a wall hanging as a travel poster representing the city of San Buenaventura, “California’s Hidden Treasure”. Susie Swan interpreted the four seasons of a citrus tree in “Oh My Ojai”. She also will display “Becky’s Hands”, inspired by a photo of her daughter in the Ojai Valley News. Textile artist, Barbara Wunder Hynes, created “Cradle of the Moon” using the Ojai Valley as part of her inspiration for a CD album cover design. A scenic view while driving into Moorpark from the Conejo Valley was the inspiration for Dana Zurzolo’s quilt. Most of the fabrics in this quilt are recycled drapes, dresses, scraps & thrift shop finds and features hand appliqué and embroidery as well as stencil details.

Also on display will be quilted panels of the Santa Paula Depot and the Clock Tower finished by Linda and Sarah Wilkinson for the 2002 Heritage Valley Quilters challenge using citrus fabric for the theme and the wall hanging “Quilt Show Ladies” made in 1995 by the Morning Glories Quilt Group, a mini group from Camarillo Quilters Association.

Non-quilted textiles in the exhibit include a hooked rug, “Oxnard, A Very Long Time Ago” by Sharon Clarke and an machine embroidered shirt made for Pauline Hair, using the same designs worked in two of the blocks in the Santa Paula History Quilt.

WHO: 12th Annual Heritage Valley Festival of Quilts
WHAT: “Picture This! Pictorial Quilts (and more) of Ventura County”
WHEN: September 26 through January 9, 2011
Opening reception Sunday, September 26, from 1-3 PM
WHERE: The City of Santa Paula’s California Oil Museum
1001 E. Main Street, in historic downtown Santa Paula
Open Wednesday-Sunday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Admission: Adults $4, Seniors $3, Students (6-17) $1, Members/5 & under Free.