circuit board quilt - 26 in 21 quilt 1

 the first final project from the 26 in 21 adventure is here!

for being such a big project, it actually wasn't too hard to get going and keep going throughout.
i think having the fabric purchased already was absolutely helpful to make that happen, which was kind of my hope for this first quilt.

the circuit board quilt was one that i saw at some point last year, and knew instantly it would be the perfect quilt for my older brother.
in contrast to the 4732 quilts i've made my sister (okay... like, 3...) i haven't made a single one for either of my brothers.  with markham's birthday being january 12, this was the perfect reasoning to kick off 26 in 21 with this beast.after purchasing the pattern, i had collected the various black on blacks from two places in town.  swifty stitches and cali quilt co.  the green, which is i believe "kelly" in the grunge family, also came from cali quilt co, as it was my final piece to pick up after leaving work one day in december.  i had all my fabric pulled and ready, and things were set to kick off on january 1st!while it felt like a dozen other things were happening at the same time, i still managed to set aside time to work on this quilt most nights.  i started with the traditionally pieced blocks (the straight line ones were first) and then once i moved my way through everything (even while hunkering down at my parent's for an over night car repair) and on to the paper pieced blocks.  for being straight diagonal lines, i sure found that they had their tricky moments!it was pretty fun getting all these black on blacks to look as scrappy as possible.  it turns out i had a lot of different star prints as well as polka dot prints.  keeping them from clumping sure was a challenge!  but i think i did a pretty fair job of it, even with this beast not being able to fit on my design wall.  i seriously underestimate how big 76 inches is ALL THE TIME even though i'm fully aware 72 inches is 6 feet... someday it might sink in....
someday...i quilted it after work one day on the q'nique 21 that we have at the shop, which is fully computerize and AWESOME.  i had purchased a cat themed pantograph that i felt would be perfect for this project (and let's be real... probably many more to come) and it totally was.  i also backed this quilt in shannon cuddle for the first time, and i pretty much love how it turned out.  i love the feel of a weighted blanket (hence that i currently have 5 quilts on my bed right now) and this cuddle backing adds a little extra weight to it.  plus, the pricing wasn't far off from the 108" wide backing i would have used anyways.  
i had enough of my black on black fabrics initially that i was able to do a black scrappy binding on the quilt to frame it all up without having to purchase anything additional.  which was extra nice, since i'm trying to track my fabric intake and outtake this year.  go me!
here's a peek at how the cuddle quilted up on the back.  perfect and fuzzy to replicate those black cats that always seem to reside in markham's room.

speaking of black cats...

apparently veruca has already tested out the quilt and made sure it was up to her standards.

this circuit board quilt was a fun new challenge to take on, and i totally enjoyed it being something new and exciting to kick off 2021 and my crazy plans.  don't forget, the whole journey is on my youtube channel, which you can find here:  emily's 26 in 21

pattern information: circuit board by flying parrot quilts
quilt count: 148