On one wall of the WonderLab Museum of Science, Technology and Health hangs a series of patchwork squares with glints of buttons, sequins and thread.
A few of the quilt squares have “Press Here” signs spaced above the refreshment tables — at about shoulder-height for an adult or eye-level for a kid.
When tapped, the buttons conduct electricity from a battery pack on the square through metallic wire-thread to a lightbulb in one corner, which flashes blue or red.
Every year, the WonderLab displays a quilt as part of Heritage Quilt celebrations for the whole of March, Gallery Operations Manager Ella Heckman said.
The E-Textile Community Quilt, though, came about a little differently than usual.
The Wonderlab worked with Creativity Labs at IU for September’s “First Friday,” a half-price, monthly craft-centric day of activities. Every First Friday has a “Science of Art” project, Heckman said.
Usually, the quilt display is made by a local artist, but this year the WonderLab asked visitors to make their own electronic quilt pieces.
Most of the First Friday crafts are things the children and teens can take home, she said. But occasionally, the museum asks its First Friday participants to make something they can display, as it did beginning in September.
“I think it’s really important for them to take ownership and have some pride in something they’ve worked on that’s on display here,” Heckman said.
The kids each received a square of fabric, which they lit with lithium batteries and conductive thread and decorated with markers, beads, pom poms and sequins.
One square reads “I (heart) WL” for the WonderLab. Another, made as part of a Martin Luther King Day project, has “MLK” arching across it in foam letters.
Heckman said she likes the pom pom squares, as “they add a fun texture,” but also enjoyed the range of decorations the First Friday participants added.
“We left it pretty open-ended, design-wise,” Heckman said. “They were able to do pretty much anything they wanted.”
Shay Upadhyay, a WonderLab volunteer, said she did some of the threading with conductive wires to make the squares light up.
The museum’s previous coordinator sewed the finished squares together by color during the course of two or three days, Upadhyay said.
“I like that we were able to get creative with them,” she said. “Since it was a community project, it was cool to see some of the creativity.”
After the quilt blocks were finished, Heckman said she hung them in a horizontal pattern above the tables in the snack area to encourage interaction by museum visitors.
“It’s not very often that you see fabric lighting up,” Heckman said. “I’m excited, though, to see how visitors react for the duration of this exhibit.”
