EARLVILLE – Painting with fabric?  It seems impossible, but the Annual Contemporary Art Quilts Exhibits will display six adept and innovative quilters who will showcase their expertise in fabric portraits and art quilts at the Earlville Opera House from July 24 to Aug. 18.  Hailing from various regions of the nation and even Canada, this exhibit displays varying flavors of quilting techniques and artistic vision. 

The EOH West gallery will be devoted to the nationally known quilter Marilyn Belford with The Collected Works of Marilyn Belford.  Belford creates realistic fabric portraits, the most well known and awarded being “My Parents” and “Rundy.”  She has written two books and has been nominated Teacher of the Year by the magazine The Professional Quilter in 2004 and 2007.  Eighteen pieces will be on display, including portraits, Biblical portrayals, and representations of paintings by Picasso, Gauguin, and O’Keefe.  Her works have been shown at the American Quilters Society show in Paducah, Quilters’ Heritage Celebration in Lancaster, the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas, the Schweinfurth Museum in Auburn, and other museums and shows nationally.