LED Quilt Overview

Community L.E.D. Quilt

What kind of quilt can we make using a 6.5 inch felt square and 5 L.E.D. mini lights?

Something Awesome!

Please join us in a collaboration this month. We are creating a community quilt using L.E.D. lights and conductive thread. The individual blocks will be joined together with conductive tape and sewn into a large brightly lit quilt. This quilt will be shown at Ypsi Glow on October 29. There is also an option to do a solo quilt block that comes with its own power supply.

Please return your finished block to by October 22.

Community Quilt block kit includes

1 QR code for video links and instructions

5 mini color L.E.D lights

1 6 ½ inch felt square

1 needle

3 meters (118.11 inches) conductive thread

3 meters (118.11 inches) white thread

3 meters (118.11 inches) black thread

Solo Quilt block kit includes

All of the supplies from the community quilt

1 Coin battery

1 battery holder

Extras- not included

Extra fabric

Extra thread

Thimble

Scissors

Decorative items (for example: buttons, ribbons, embroidery thread, yarn, beads, paint, twigs, etc.)

Felt glue

Creativity

Do not use

Heavy items (for example: rocks or heavy motors)

Glues such as white school glue and hot glue

Papers and tissues

Stickers

The Project:

Kids, get an adult help with this project and get creative together. Using the 6 ½ inch felt square sew a design using the L.E.D. lights and your extras. You will need to sew the L.E.D. lights on to the felt using conductive thread. Each L.E.D. light has a positive and a negative end. Only connect a positive end, using the conductive thread, to another positive end. When you are done sewing the positive ends then you can start on the negative ends. Only connect a negative end to a negative end using the conductive thread. This is a parallel connection. When sewing your parallel connection, you will need to start the positive connection on the top portion of your felt square, leaving a long tail and connect positive ends together. Switch to the negative connections and leave a long tail on the bottom of your square. The tails on the top and bottom parts of your square will then be connected to conductive tape and combined with other squares to make the quilt. It would be helpful to write, in ball point pen, a small + on the top side of the back of your felt square, and a - on the bottom.

When designing and making your quilt square make sure to leave 3/4 inch on all four edges free from any decorations or lights. This 3/4 inch is the seam allowance that will be needed to sew the blocks together. You can stitch your conductive thread all the way to the top edge and bottom edge.

If you use felt glue or paint, make sure it is completely dry before testing your L.E.D. lights.

Check out our other guides to learn the basics on Sewing, Circuits, Troubleshooting and Tips for Success.

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