When the local artist Ben Millett recently found himself with a stash of fabric remnants from a previous project, he decided to assemble them into a quilt that celebrated that history. The resulting work, in which a rainbow of scraps bursts across a white field, is one of about two dozen bold and beautifully intricate quilts Millett plans to display in his upcoming solo show at the Des Moines Art Center during this year’s Iowa Artists exhibition, July 26 through Nov. 2. His quilts add new layers to an art form that is as Iowan as a barn mural or a county fair.

“As far as I know, this is the Des Moines Art Center’s first all-quilt show,” said longtime curator Laura Burkhalter, who first spotted Millett’s work a few years ago at the Polk County Heritage Gallery. His big green quilt inspired by the Emerald City in “The Wizard of Oz” caught her eye “for the way it blended influences and meaning,” she said. “I was just absolutely blown away.”