As the seasons change and the nights get longer, now you have an opportunity to express your inner light! Pick up a kit and sew your quilt square, complete with LEDs, and we will stitch them all together to make a giant light-up community quilt, to be premiered at YpsiGlow on Friday, October 29!
To Get Started:
Visit any of these participating locations to pick up your kit:
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Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum (Note: museum admission tickets are not required to pick up a quilt kit.) |
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All Hands Active 255 E. Liberty St. Suite 225 Ann Arbor, MI 48104 View hours. |
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Ypsilanti District Library - Michigan |
Cost & Quantity
- Your quilt square kit is free! Quantities are limited, so we request a limit of one quilt square per household, please.
- Want to make more? You can purchase additional kits that include a battery to make your very own one-square mini-quilt that you can keep! These LED Standalone kits cost $5.00 each ($4.72 + tax) and are available for purchase exclusively at Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum store, while supplies last.
Sew Your Quilt Square
- Return your square to any of the pick-up locations as soon as it's complete, and no later than October 22. We need a week to sew them all together and hook up the electronics so that we can display the completed quilt at YpsiGlow on October 29. When you turn in your completed square, you will receive a discount code good for 1 free admission to Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum!
What Happens Next?
- We’ll stitch all the squares together into a beautiful light-up quilt, powered by your imagination!
- The quilt will make its public premiere on October 29 at the YpsiGlow event in Ypsilanti.
Ready to begin?
We’ve put together five short instructional videos to help you complete your square! Each video also has a companion wiki page that we'll continuously update and grow as the project progresses.
In the Overview video (6:09 minutes), learn what the project is all about. You'll see what comes in each kit and learn how it will all come together. View the wiki.
Tips For Success (6:21 minutes) will cover some essential Do's and Don'ts to help you create a one-of-a-kind quilt square while avoiding some common pitfalls. View the wiki.
In Sewing Your Quilt Square (9:21 minutes) you'll learn some sewing basics, including threading a needle, two basic stitches (running stitch and whip stitch), and sewing safety. View the wiki.
Intro to LED Circuits (7:08 minutes) gives you everything you need to understand how to connect your LEDs into a parallel circuit using the conductive thread. View the wiki.
Running into problems with your circuit? Troubleshooting Your LEDs (6:04 minutes) will explore some of the most common problems and how to correct for them. (Wiki coming soon...)