The April challenge for Island Batik Ambassadors features the classic Drunkard's Path block. I admit, my heart sank a little when I got the list of challenges, because I hate sewing curves and avoid it at all costs. But alas, there was no avoiding it for this challenge!
Though I avoid curved piecing, there are some Accuquilt dies that feature curves and I admit, I've been curious to see if that would make the curved piecing better, so I bought an Accuquilt Drunkard's Path die. They have a few sizes; I purchased the one that created 4" finished Drunkard's Path units.
Materials used in this project were given to me by Island Batik, Schmetz, Hobbs, Aurifil, and Oliso.
I had a 10" stack of the collection Breezy by Kate Colleran. This is a collection from last year but I still see it online in several places, including:
- Batiks Etc & Sew What Fabrics; Wytheville, VA
- Hancock's of Peducah; Peducah, KY
- Creekside Quilts; Banks, OR
- My Favorite Quilt Store; Houston, TX
I used all twenty fabrics from Breezy in this quilt and actually don't have much left from the 10" stack. There are a few lighter fabrics in the collection and I maybe should have skipped them; the one I used for the drunkard's path curves disappears into the Mint background when you are not close up. I decided to go with the motto "finished is better than perfect" and didn't rip it out because I didn't have enough of any one fabric from Breezy to fix it at the point I knew it was a problem.
The curved piecing wasn't terrible. One my fellow ambassadors, Sarah Pitcher of Pitcher's Boutique, suggested gluing. Accuquilt has little notches for the center to make it easy to line up, so I started by gluing at the notches and then slowing gluing out to each end. I tested sewing with the smaller piece on top and the larger piece on top and found that I didn't notice a difference in one being easier or neater than the other, though I did like gluing a LOT more than pinning. I would glue up a bunch of units, let them dry, chain piece with a Schmetz needle, and smooth out the curve very carefully with my Olisio mini iron. The blocks came out better than I expected!
My top has 72 Drunkard's Path units. I layered the top with Hobbs Bleached 80/20 batting and quilted in wavy lines on the diagonal with Aurifil thread in a light green. The background is Mint and the binding is Grass, both from Island Batik's always-available Foundations collection. Truth be told, I'm glad to have the curved piecing challenge behind me, but I am glad to know that if I have to, I can make a passable block with curves.
