Today's Quilter - UK (2019-07)

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ESSENTIALGUIDE l sewingcurvedseams

62

MAKING A DRUNKARD’S PATH BLOCK

TheDrunkard’sPathblockis a well-knownblockthat

usescurvesin itsconstruction,sois idealto practise

thetechnique.It is usuallymadeupof sixteenunits,all

madethesameway,althoughthefabricscanvary.The

arrangementdescribedhereis justoneof dozensthat

arepossiblewiththisversatileblock.Theunitscanuse

whatevertemplatesyoulike,althoughit’sgenerallymade

withquartercirclesthatdonotextendto theedgeof the

unit.Twoof thetemplatesprovidedin theTemplates

sectionwouldbeuseful.Template1 makesa 5insquare

unfinishedunitanda block 18 in (18infinished).

Template4 makesa 3in squareunfinished unit and a

smaller block of 12in (12in finished).

1

Usingthetemplatesof yourchoice,cutouttheshapes

showninFig 5. Fortheblockshownsixdierent

fabricswereusedto createthreedierentunits.Fortwo

of theunits,templateshapeA wasdominant(darker),

but you could choose your own colour balance.

2

Sewtheshapestogether,asdescribedin Sewinga

CurvedSeam.Press the units and check they are the

correct size(Fig 6 ).

3

Arrangetheunitsin a 4 x 4 layout(Fig 7 ), rotating

themin thecorrectdirection.Sewtheunitstogether

in rows.Presstheseamsof rows1 and3 in onedirection

androws2 and4 in theoppositedirection.Sewtherows

together,aligningseamsneatlyandpress.Checkthe

blockis thesizeit is supposedto be.Fig 8 showssome

other arrangements of the block you could try.

A

B

A

B

A

B

Fig 5 Cutting the shapes Fig 6 Making the units

Fig 7 Assembling the block

A

B

C

D

Somedifferentarrangements

Fig 8 of Drunkard’s Path block

Cut 4 of each Make 4

Make 4

Make 8

Cut 4 of each

Cut 8 of each