Heritage Oaks Quilts was born from a love of history, art and fabric.  Arlene Arnold wanted to meld these interests.

At the Templeton Outdoor Quilt Show several years ago Arlene purchased her first vintage quilt, a full size1930’s Grandma’s Flower Garden made with fussy cut miniature blocks.   She heard the owner saying that his wife had better be checking their bids on EBay for more quilts.  Hmmmm.  EBay, Arlene thought.

Later that year when her vacation plans fell apart Arlene decided to use the time and money to “vacation” for quilts on line.  That’s when she found, bid on and won her first antique quilt, an 1830 Puss in the Corner from Virginia.  In two weeks, Arlene was able to get a very good start on her collection and have the local postal employees wondering what she was doing receiving all of those packages.  One day they called her and suggested that she should come to town, there were a few packages for her, bring the pick-up and pull around to the back loading dock.  Don’t bother coming to the window!

Arlene’s first exposure to showing her antique quilts was a Civil War reenactment held in her hometown of Colusa.  She did a bed turning of 30 quilts for 900 school children the first day and the following two days were spent showing the quilts to the pubic along with watching the battles fought not 50 feet from her tent!

Now retired from administrative work, Arlene is able to concentrate on bringing her antique quilts to guilds and public performances.  She also teaches workshops using patterns made from her antique quilts.

When not looking for the next perfect antique quilt purchase Arlene can be found farming her walnut orchard and raising her beloved English Springer Spaniels.