More about the Arduino Quilt

The Arduino quilt in the video from this post is my latest e-textile creation. My husband gave me the Lilypad arduino as a Christmas gift, and I had been trying to figure out what to do with it.  I was also really stuck on using this fabulous piece of antique lace in an all off-white fabric manipulation piece.

The title of this work is called "Shattered" and it was designed for the Naperville Art League's public art competition, but I didn't complete it in time. It will go to some other venues and I'm happy that the idea is complete and finally finished. 

This is what the fabric manipulations looked like in progress.

This is a close up of the arduino on the back.  It's held on by the stitches I used with the conductive thread. 
I mounted this to canvas, because the battery back sticks out pretty far and it will not lay flat against a surface if hung on a wall. 
I haven't tested how long it will run on the one battery.  
The program I wrote was done using a modified version of one of the basic ones it comes with.  I must have tweaked it 30 times before I got it right.  This uses PWM, or Pulse Width Modulation, which is how you get a LED light to fade.  I wanted this to have a soft fade effect for the lights, and the sketch program that I tweaked was better than me writing it from scratch.

After the lights were put on the front, I painted them with some cream colored acrylic paint so that they more or less disappeared on the surface of the quilt.
I hope this answers some of the questions out there about this project.  I loved making the quilt itself and really enjoyed figuring out the lights.

Cincinnati- Day 2

Today was a good day.  No.  Today was a GREAT day!

My taping for my segment on Quilting Arts TV was today!  I was thrilled to be asked and I was so happy this day was finally here.  I got there early and watched part of the set up.

Pokey and I did our thing in one take!!!  I have ZERO recollection of anything I said so if I made a mistake, I'm sorry!!

I spent a good amount of time on the show floor afterwards and I got to shop and see all of the quilts.  I didn't have time tonight to take a picture of my show and tell purchases but I will tomorrow!

I needed a break and sat for a while and saw a wonderful lecture by Nysha Nelson on Inspiration and Nerve, which I really enjoyed.

I reconnected with my friend Catherine after her Noriko Endo class and we headed back to the hotel for a much needed break.   After all, the party was about to begin!!

We danced, drank, and generally had a great time.  I feel like my friends were missing (Judy, Melly, Sally, Lindsey and Helen!) but we made the best of it and had a nice time.

I'm exhaustedand need to sign up for a class tomorrow bright and early so it's off to bed with me, and more tomorrow!!

I'm in the latest QUILTING ARTS!!!!

This was the HARDEST secret (that really ended up not being that secret) I have ever had to keep!!  Especially since subscribers got their issues a few days ago and have been emailing me, and messaging me on Facebook, and even commenting here!
My article was picked up for the 10th anniversary issue of Quilting Arts!  
I'm so excited, I can barely stand it!
It's available from quilt shops, all the major bookstores, and Quilting Art's website.  Please go out and get a copy!  
There's a few cool giveaways I'm planning this month, so get ready, because it's gonna be an awesome time here!  There's not enough exclamation points for me to express how cool this is for me! !!!  
This is literally a dream come true.  It's also one of my major art goals achieved.  Remember way back when when I said I had a dream about this?  I didn't tell you that the dream resulted in me NOT getting into the magazine.  I was so upset about the dream, and I knew that I would never know how it would really turn out unless I actually submitted the article.  I know many of you replied to my "should I or shouldn't I" blog post, and I thank you for spurring me on!  
Please let me know what you think of the article, and I will be back with lots of giveaways and fun stuff!  No, really!  Check back often!!!

LED Starter Kits Now Available from ME!

I am so excited to be able to offer sewable LED kits to get your little quilt projects off the ground!
Check out my Shop page on my website for more information. 

It has a battery, a sewable battery holder, 2 LEDs, and 3 yards of conductive thread.  I'm also including a line drawing of an adorable zombie, in case you'd like to make one as a quiltlet!  Choose from RED or YELLOW LEDs.  Thanks!

Technique of the Week #1 - "Soft Circuitry"

Project hours: about 7
2 hours design + research
5 hours execution


I got a fabric circuitry kit for Christmas, and I had been dying to try some of the things from Craft/Make magazine about fashion technology. I thought this could be adapted to a quilt, and I was pretty ecstatic with the results.

First off, this is an interpretation of a taningia danae squid.  I say "interpretation" because not only is it a cartoon version, but the tentacles that exhibit the bioluminescence are exaggeratedly long.  Oh well!  I was researching cephalopods for my themes and came across bioluminescence and thought this was a great connection for my LED circuit project!

Here is a photo of the back of the quilt so you can see my "circuitry".  Basically, I took 2 blue LEDs and connected the positives to the back side of my coin cell battery holder, and the negatives to the front. The battery does have to be inserted correctly.  The "holder" is just a folded over piece of cloth, sewn to the back after I connected the conductive threads to the right poles.  It's nice and tight, and the battery has a good connection inside.  This holder has a benefit of being flat against a wall if I were to hang the quilt. 

A great start to my goal for a "technique a week"! I plan to provide the hours each one takes me to execute so you get a good idea of how intricate some of the methods are.