Each summer, the state becomes a hot spot for quilting innovation as hundreds of artists (Shearrow included) visit shows and attend the Quilt Surface Design Symposium — an international workshop that will begin next week in Columbus. One Quilt National piece by Sue Akerman, African Scarified IV , is constructed of used tea bags covered with organza. Some artists build collages — a days-long process of layering paint, stitches, paper or silk until shapes emerge. For those who must know, Alison Schwabe, a fiber artist from Australia, used a wood-burning tool to singe the organza covering of Timetracks 7 , at Quilt National. Sitting upright in a chair at the Dairy Barn is Susan Else’s Nothing To Fear , a plastic medical skeleton upholstered head-to-toe in colorful quilted material.

Tags: quilting patterns, quilting fat quarters, art, long arm quilting machines, quilt, fabric