I have always loved the look of Drunkard’s Path quilt blocks and their infinitely varied layouts but over the years some of my attempts at making them have been frustrating. I have cheated and used interfacing or bondaweb appliqué blocks covered with embroidery stitches and thrown away many blocks where the two pieces just would not meet, even using a special designed-for-curved-piecing foot.
Long, long ago…
Thanks to lots of practice and a certain amount of time watching YouTube demos, I have now conquered most of my demons about curved piecing but freely admit that there are times when a certain amount of fudging goes on!
Celtic Connections – yurt panel pieced and quilted by Linzi Upton
Slinky – yurt panel (pieced by Corey Starkey, quilted by Linzi Upton)
Sam’s Quilt – pieced and quilted by Linzi Upton
When fellow Bernina longarm ambassador, John Kubiniec asked me to review his book, A NEW SPIN ON DRUNKARD’S PATH I was intrigued to see what his method would be to crack the devilishly difficult Drunkard’s Path blocks. The layout and explanations in the book are very clear and as an Instruction-Phobe like me that is high praise;) Most importantly, the templates are a SENSIBLE size. This means that the curve is not too sharp or short so you stand a far better chance of easing in that curve! John writes, “ If you detest curved piecing, I hope these patterns will entice you to give it a try and that my techniques will help you conquer your fears. If you already love curved piecing, the variations and patterns will help you explore new design possibilities.”
John very sensibly recommends using at least 3 pins but I chose to ignore that sage advice and still managed to make well behaved DP units.
I was only going to make one or two units to test the instructions but I very quickly found myself making 16 units to make a giant DP block and because my mental arithmetic failed me, I accidentally cut out enough for 2 giant blocks so I found myself making a trip to the fabric shop for more black in order to make an entire, impromptu quilt.
Giant DP block made in less than one hour!
If I had had enough black at home I reckon I could easily have run up a quilt top in a day. I seem to have become slightly addicted to making John’s quick and easy DP units as I have now have plans to add a “snake in the grass” style border!
A NEW SPIN ON DRUNKARD’S PATH by John Kubiniec is available from
www.ctpub.com
www.amazon.co.uk or http://www.amazon.com
www.bigrigquilting.com
Enter the Giveaway
Win a free copy of John Kubiniec’s new book, “A New Spin on Drunkard’s Path” – just leave a comment and check back on October 9th for the randomly-drawn winner (UK blog readers will receive an Ebook)
The blog tour
September 26, 2016 Jenifer Dick www.42quilts.com
C&T Publishing http://www.ctpub.com/blog/
September 27, 2016 Sara Lawson www.sewsweetness.com/blog
Heather Kojan http://www.heatherkojan.com
September 28, 2016 Bill Volckening http://willywonkyquilts.blogspot.com
McCall’s Quilting http://www.mccallsquilting.com/blogs/
September 29, 2016 Teri Lucas https://terificreations.com
Bonnie Hunter http://quiltville.blogspot.com
September 30, 2016 made by ChrissieD http://madebychrissied.blogspot.com
LoveBug Studios https://lovebugstudios.com/blog/
October 1, 2016
Kathy Patterson http://hillstreetquilts.blogspot.com
Teresa Coates http://www.crinkledreams.com
October 2, 2016 Carl Hentsch http://3dogdesignco.blogspot.com
October 3, 2016 Generation Q Magazine http://generationqmagazine.com
Lisa Calle https://lisacalle.wordpress.com
October 4, 2016 Linzi Upton https://thequiltquine.wordpress.com
Nicole Daksiewicz www.modernhandcraft.com/blog
October 5, 2016 Marti Michell http://frommartimichell.blogspot.com
Debby Brown http://higheredhands.blogspot.com
October 6, 2016 Melody Crust http://melodycrust.blogspot.com/
Kim Niedzwiecki http://www.gogokim.com
October 7, 2016 Patrick Lose http://www.patricklose.com
John Kubiniec https://bigrigquilting.com/blog/