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Wednesday, August 10, 2016

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!

LINKING:
TGIFF

36 comments:

  1. Wow ! It's a fun idea and a striking quilt. Congratulations on this finish.

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  2. Congrats on persevering to the end of the project. Great job :)

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  3. It is an amazing quilt! I am sure, it will win many prizes. Thanks so much for letting us participating in the process!

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  4. Yikes, that would have hurt my eyes to work on(not to mention my brain)!! But Kudos to you for sticking with your idea and achieving such great results;-)

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  5. Good golly Ms. Twiggy, that's amazing. I wouldn't have known where to start! I do think your "less is more" plan would have saved some headaches, but it is still fabulous as it.

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  6. Wow! I LOVE it!! Very, very cool!!

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  7. Whoa!! That was quite the experiment Jayne - looks fantastic!

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  8. This quilt is awesome! That was a crazy amount of paper piecing and piecing of little blogs, but the result is stunning!

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  9. It must feel great to have done it, from start to finish! I really like the quilt, the contrast, the design, the colors -- everything! Nicely done!

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  10. I love the finished result, Jayne, and the fact that you learned to much along the way. That is an incredible amount of paper piecing! Do you have plans for what happens with the quilt now?

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  11. Thanks for sharing some of your creative process. It takes much thought to create something wonderful. Yes we will most always see where we can improve our work but that doesn't take away from the beauty we created. Your piece is amazing.

    tushay3 (at) yahoo (dot) com

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  12. This is crazy amazing! I can't even imagine paper piecing all of those tiny blocks, but it was well worth it.

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  13. What a great quilt! It looks amazing, so all your work was totally worth it. "Maze of crazy" would be a great name for a quilt!

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    1. Mari, that's exactly what I thought when reading Jayne's post!

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  14. This is amazing! You do the coolest stuff! I think it turned out to be incredible.

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  15. Wow, this is ridiculously complicated but so worth all the effort you put into it! Amazing!

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  16. When it comes to a quilt, you are willing to tackle anything! Congratulations on another great finish.

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  17. You have once again created a winner!!! I hereby rename your blog from Twiggy & Opal to Fresh & Fearless. You will stop at nothing to fearlessly create fresh designs. By the time folks figure out and are having a AHA moment, you would have added three more.
    Hugs,
    Preeti.

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  18. Wow what an amazing quilt... Inspiring

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  19. Woww. You may not think it's perfect, I just think it's fabulous.

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  20. I love it and I can't find the blocks, which are wrong. It was worth all the work and I haben't seen such a design before. Really great.

    Best Mareike

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  21. That is amazing! .... and so creative.

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  22. That is a cool design! Well done, Jayne!

    -Soma

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  23. Fabulous! I expect to see it in many shows.

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  24. I see NOTHING wrong. In fact, if you said this is exactly the way you designed it, who's going to know any different? It's an impressionistic version of a circuit board and you can definitely see that. I think it's a winner!

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  25. WOW. I am amazed. You did an awesome job!! Wow.

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  26. wow. That's pretty amazing! Especially when you realize how small the blocks are! Very cool.

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  27. This is phenomenal!! And what a great example of persistence paying off!!

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  28. You give me hope! I started a similar process but with HSTs in 2" finished. I put them all out on the floor in a design similar to yours. I then numbered the rows and they sat until I finished two small projects. Unfortunately when I went to put them back together i must have "turned" a stack. It's not going together as smoothly and basically I need to lay out the rows all over again for rows 7-???. (The first six are correct.) I really like how you used two colors. An amazing finish.

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  29. This is absolutely fantastic! I love the original design and I also love the way you interpreted it in fabric. The little gaps in the highlight circuits are perfect. Adds to the design so much!

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  30. Holy Camoly! This quilt is awesome and makes my brain hurt at the same time. Go celebrate completing this one.

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  31. well that is just so amazing!!!

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  32. WOW, even with your explanation (which was great, by the way), I can't even imagine how you did that. But I love it. I can see why you might want to simplify with bigger blocks, but really that would take away from the intricacy that is circuit boards.

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  33. This is an absolutely gorgeous quilt! My head hurts just thinking of all the organization and math, but the effect was well worth it in the end. Fantastic job! :)

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  34. Wow, a labour of love I think. Wonderful, amazing, and so Jayne.
    Smiles
    Kate

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