A bi-plane and pilot is featured on this quilt by Christine Husak, a Les Cheneaux summer resident who has brought the Michigan Quilt Artists Invitational to Cedarville for the past six years. Her husband is a bi-plane pilot. Sparkling galaxies, flying ships, luminous moons, and skies full of stars are some of the images featured on a collection of quilts at the Les Cheneaux Historical Museum in Cedarville. This year's Michigan Quilt Artist Invitational theme shows 60 different views of how people interpret the phrase "Out of This World."

The collection of quilts has been on the walls of the museum since July, and will hang through the month of August. The exhibit can be seen during open hours at the museum Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

This is the sixth consecutive year the museum has hosted the Quilt Artist Invitational, which was brought to the area by summer resident Christine Husak of Ortonville. She brings the quilts to Cedarville and helps hang them every year. A professional quilter, Ms. Husak has previously taught quilting classes in Cedarville and other places, and she has lectured on the art of quilting.

Makers of the quilts start their projects as early as a year in advance. After the theme is set, the artists are restricted only by theme and size: 20 inches by 24 inches. The show started touring in 2006.

The theme has been widely interpreted, and features mainly pieces with outer space and celestial subjects, like planets, galaxies, and stars. Metallic threads and fabrics and star-shaped beads are used to represent the shimmer and glow of celestial objects. A quilt called "Starburst" by Mary Andrews of Grand Blanc uses hand-dyed fabric and beads to create a nebulous appearance around a star. Her contemporary quilts featuring her hand-dyed fabics have been shown throughout the world. Moons, sections of the solar system, and planets are also featured in a multitude of colors and textures.

Some of the quilts depict earthly objects with heavenly connections. Ms. Husak's bright, quilted image of a bi-plane and pilot gives a nod to a personal connection to bi-plane flying. "Beyond the Stars" by Lois Ann Fulton of Fenton depicts a space shuttle rising out of swirling clouds of vapor into clear blue sky. "Land of the Blue Trees" by another professional artist, Sue Holdaway-Heys of Ann Arbor, shows the somewhat ghostly appearance of tree trunks and their shadows. Another is a tribute to the 1945 movie, "Out of This World," which featured the Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer tune by the same name, performed by Bing Crosby.

Visitors to the museum this year will see almost twice as many quilts as they usually do, as the show typically features 25 to 40 pieces. The show's touring period has also extended over three years, starting in 2006 in the Flint area, and ending August 2008 in Charlevoix. The show will hang in other museums, art galleries, and libraries in 20 different Michigan communities, including Ann Arbor, Oxford, Mount Clemens, Oakland County, East Lansing, and Livonia. Cedarville and Marquette are the only Upper Peninsula locations of the show.

The Michigan Quilt Artists Invitational was started in 1996 by southern Michigan artists Mary Andrews and Marty Lawrence to promote quilting as a vehicle for visual expression. The group also hopes to preserve quilting by recognizing it as a fine art.

Agallery book accompanies the quilt exhibit and describes each featured quilt, including techniques used for the piece and a brief biography of the artists.