Welcome to April and another challenge for Island Batik Ambassadors - like me! 😉
Thanks to @Hobbs Quilt Batting, @Oliso, @aurifilthreads and Island Batik for @luminfabrics for the items that they sent me that allowed me to create this month’s project.
The challenge this month was to make a project using a traditional quilt block - the Drunkard’s Path - in an untraditional way and I was up for this challenge!
I used my Modern Curves design that I had previously created for my online membership, The Quilter’s Way. This design is square and finishes at 45”.
I used an Island Batik Stack (10” squares) from the Flutter Wings fabric collection by Kathy Engle as well as black fabric from the solids collection.
I was able to use the fabric from the Stack not only in the blocks but also in one of the borders and in the pieced binding. And I still have at least half of the Stack left for a future project. I loved the bright, summery fabrics in the Flutter Wings collection and really loved how they popped off the black background.
I used an acrylic template to cut my fabrics for 6” finished blocks and then had to do the dreaded curved piecing. I’ve tried to do this many different ways and I get the best results when I just stitch slowly with a ¼” foot and use a stiletto to feed my two fabrics under the needle. My Oliso M3 Pro Project iron worked perfectly for pressing these small curved pieces in each block.
Once the blocks were made, I had to decide how I wanted to position them for the quilt top. Thank goodness for my portable design wall! I played with different arrangements and finally decided on one that I liked. Taking photos of the various combinations really helped in making this decision!
Now that I had decided on the block arrangements, it was time to stitch them together into rows and then rows into a quilt top. I also stitched together strips to make the first border and then attached it and the second border from the black fabric.
Once I had the top completed, it was time to decide on how to quilt Modern Curves. I use Procreate (an iPad app) to sketch out my ideas for quilt motifs and I did that for this project as well but then deviated from it quite a bit. Inspiration often hits when I’m doing the quilting.
I next had to choose what colour thread to use for the quilting. I like to use one thread for the entire quilting process if I can but it’s tough to choose a thread that works for both black and bright fabrics. After much thread playing and thinking, I decided to use a dark grey thread. I sandwiched my quilt top with Hobbs 100% cotton batting and used the black solid Island Batik fabric with a bit of the Flutter Wings fabric to create the pieced backing.
Here is the final result:
And a bit of the back …
There have already been many amazing Drunkard’s Path projects shared by my fellow Island Batik Ambassadors this month and there are still more to come!
You can find out more about the 2025 Island Batik Ambassadors and the projects that they will be working on this year on their websites below.
Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs
Renee Atkinson ~ Pink Tulip Quilting
Susan Deshensky ~ Lady Blue Quilts Studio
Tina Dillard - Quilting Affection Designs
Brittany Fisher ~ Bobbin with Brittany
Kimberly Flannagan - Kimberlys Quilts
Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts
Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts
Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs
Connie Kresin Campbell ~ Freemotion by the River
Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood
Denise Looney ~ A Quiltery
Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights
Susan Michaels - Dragonfly Fibertart Pattern Company
Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion
Sarah Pitcher ~ Pitcher’s Boutique
Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail
Carol Stanek ~ Stitch with Color
Solomae Stoycoff - Cuddle Cat Quiltworks
Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations
Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt
Be sure you’re following me on Facebook and Instagram so you won’t miss out on what I’ll be creating next with Island Batik fabrics!
Note: The products featured in this blogpost were given to me by Island Batik and their sponsors. Thank you!
#islandbatik #islandbatikambassador #loveislandbatik #hobbsbatting, #hobbsinside, #aurifil #aurifilthreads #olisoconnects #createwitholiso #drunkardspathchallenge