Community Events

IHQS is proud to partner with local organizations in Bloomington to present off-site events related to quilting during our show. Partnerships for 2025 so far include:

WONDERLAB MUSEUM OF SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND TECHNOLOGY

WonderLab will be hosting an exhibit of quilts from the MIddle Way House Quilt Bee associated with the Bloomington Quilters Guild (BQG). The Middle Way House Bee started five years ago. Our purpose is to make quilts for the children at Middle Way House. Children get to choose a quilt, and then it is theirs to keep.

BQG members get together once a month, but also work at home in between our meetings. Most quilts are made by more than one person — one person may make the quilt top that you see when you look at a quilt hanging, while other members of our group quilt through all three layers, and then more members finish the edges, called the binding. So each quilt, by the time it is finished, could have been worked on by as many as four or five different people. Then the quilts are delivered each month to Middle Way House.

Our goal is to put a quilt in the hands of every child. So far, we have donated over 1,000 quilts to Middle Way House. 

Admission: Free with a quilt show ticket/wristband. Otherwise admission is $14.50 for everyone over the age of one. WonderLab does have not designated parking and recommends the nearby 4th Street garage (corner of W. 4th and S. Walnut Street). It’s also an easy walk from the Monroe Convention Center via the B-Line Trail.

Location: 308 West 4th Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47404. Get directions.
Hours: 9am-6pm on March 6-7, and 9am-5pm March 8.
Contact: (812) 337-1337

WYLIE HOUSE

Wylie House Museum is the charming 1835 home of Andrew Wylie, the first president of Indiana University. The fully furnished home provides a fitting backdrop for its 19th century quilt collection. This year, in addition to a selection of museum quilts, Wylie House hosts quilts created by students in IU’s Introduction to Fibers 220 course.  

The IU student exhibit is entitled Comment-airy. It features more than a dozen quilts made in class during the fall semester. Comment-airy is the idea of airing one's comments out about an important social justice topic, represented and reworked with the care and connection embedded in a quilt.

Admission:  Free and open to the public
Location: 307 E. Second St., Bloomington, Indiana 47401
Hours:  Wednesday – Saturday,  10am - 4pm

Accessibility: One accessible parking spot is located next to the museum’s education center. A path leads to the ramp at the back entrance of the museum. The historic home’s second floor is only accessible by staircase, but the museum provides images of upstairs rooms on its iPad. 

Parking: Free, two-hour street parking is available in front of the museum. Neighborhood zoned street spots are available on Saturdays. Wylie House has nine museum-designated spaces, one of which is an accessible spot, behind the museum and its education center. Access them via the alley that runs east-west between Lincoln St. and Grant St. 

Contact: (812) 855-6224 or libwylie@iu.edu

Explore Bloomington

Visit Bloomington also has lots of information on what to do and see while you're in town.