Circuit Board Maze ~ Kona Highlight Color Of The Year

Its always nice to finish a quilt, especially one you have been working on for months!  When Kona came out with the color of the year ~ Highlight, I knew I need it!  I liked it, so I bought some.  It sat around, and sat around waiting for me to come up with a plan.  And it happened!

I had this vision of a circuit board in my head.  Why, I couldn't tell you!  But there it was and it wouldn't go a way!

Circuit Board Maze
45" x 68 3/4"

I played around in EQ7 until I came up with something I was happy with.  Because each square was going to be 2" finished, I decided paper piecing would be the best way to go.

The stack grew over time, with me doing a handful here and there.  I didn't want to push it.  I knew it would be a time consuming design and I didn't want to get bored either!  



I'd print a few pages, prep the fabric, chain stitch, iron and trim.  Over and over and over.  For weeks and months.  The pile grew slowly and when I thought it was where it needed to be, it was time to remove the paper.  Yes, that was another time consuming process but one I kind of enjoyed. It meant my vision would soon become reality!

I cut a gazillion (or so it seemed) solid blocks using Kona Nautical and began filling my design wall. Yikes!  What have I gotten myself in to?!  This was the first layout and I was sure it was going to work.  I was wrong.  

This is what each block looked like when finished.  I soon found out that I had to be very, very careful how I placed them, and I certainly couldn't connect the blocks like the layout.  A problem yes, but one that I could and would work around.

Once I figured out that I had to be super careful with the orientation of the blocks, I reworked the layout.  This time it was going to work.  Again, or so I thought!

The best way to deal with piecing the blocks together was to make big blocks first.  I made 16 patch blocks marking each one with a piece of tape so I wouldn't mess up the layout.  Honestly, my head hurt trying to make sure the flow was right, the blocks aligned the way they were suppose to, the design...it got to me after a while!  Cross-eyed is an under statement!

With each bigger block I made, I came across other little issues.  Like making sure it would line up with the next block to the right, left, upper and lower blocks.  It was a maze of crazy!  Eventually I thought I had it!  It was time to sew the rows together.  And it worked, almost!  Somewhere along the line I flipped two blocks during the assembly and it threw off everything!  I didn't realize it until many rows later.  I ended up spending a lot of time with my seam ripper!



























With the top finished, I couldn't help but marvel at the back!  I loved looking at it almost as much as the front!

So there it is, the long version of a long process!  Was it successful?  Yes, and no.  Yes, I love it and it was worth all the headaches and time put into it.  No, there are so many things I would do differently.  Like bigger blocks.  Maybe less is more comes to mind!

Is it perfect? Not at all!  Even with paper piecing I couldn't achieve perfection.  Is that okay? To me is it.  It was a huge learning exercise, we learn from our mistakes.  I'm not saying it was a mistake, it just could be better.  And I'm not being critical or harsh with myself!  I'm still thrilled with the finish!!

I used Kona nautical for the back as well as the front.  I even pieced a few paper pieced blocks into the binding.  Knowing this was a 'busy' quilt, I machine quilted in the ditch resulting in an all over 2" grid.  I didn't want the dark blue Aurifil thread going through the Highlight.

Let's break it down!  

24 x 37 = 888 Squares.  Each square finished at 2", 2 1/2" unfinished.

394 Solid Kona Nautical Blocks
494 Paper Pieced Highlight Blocks

3 Paper Pieced Highlight Blocks added to the binding for a grand total of 891 2" Blocks!

I hope to 'tweak' the design with the mindset of 'less is more' one day.  Not anytime soon!  This quilt was a monster in more ways than one!

As hard as I tried I still ended up with blocks that were going the wrong way, maybe having it so busy is a plus for that issue!

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