Island Batik Ambassador's Drunkard's Path Challenge

This month the Island Batik Ambassadors were challenge to make Drunkard's Path blocks.  I have always like this block, but have never made a large number of them.

I started with a 4" Accuquilt die.  I had some gorgeous Petal Poetry by Jerry Khiev for Megan Best of Best Quilter leftover from my February challenge.  For whatever reason I decided to figure out just how many blocks I could make with my scraps.  The answer was 252.  

I worked on a design in Electric Quilter 8.  I ended up doing a 240 block design.  I wanted something modern looking so I used a solid grade Island Batik solid for the background fabric.  

I learned a lot about sewing Drunkard's Path blocks.  First, it was really helpful to glue the two ends and the middle registration mark with a dot of glue.  Then I was able to add in pins to hold the rest of the curve.  After sewing about 20 of them I wondered what I had gotten myself into making 240!?  

I also discovered that pressing the block open with my hand gently and then ironing helped to keep the block from stretching out of shape.  I of course used my Oliso iron.

But I kept at it.  10-20 a day and finished.  Then sewing them together into the finished quilt was easy!  These were of course sewn with my favorite Aurifil thread and Schmetz Microtex needles.

I then layered the quilt with my favorite Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly batting.  It makes my quilts nice and flat.

I decided to quilt only the gray background with some simple continuous curve in the quarter circles.  In the background I used three designs at random: spirals, pebbles, and a leafy feather.

I was happy to finish this quilt!  No more curved seams for a while.

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy