Kauffman Designs: Drunkards Path Island Batik Ambassador Challenge

Monday, April 21, 2025

Drunkards Path Island Batik Ambassador Challenge

58" x 58"

Quilt by Connie Kauffman

The April Challenge for the Island Batik Ambassadors is all about the Drunkards Path block.

The Drunkards Path block is one that has curved piecing. I have the Accuquilt Go! 7" Drunkard's Path die, so I decided to use that in my design. It may be hard to see where the cutting edges are on the die. I went over the lines with black permanent marker. The newer dies have the cutting edges nicely outlined in black to help in fabric placement.

In looking over the Island Batik fabrics I received in my first box, I decided to use the 10 stack of Forest Flora in the project. This collection is a lovely combination of oranges, greens and browns. I used 17 of the 20 fabrics in the collection in the project.

I used the Island Batik Foundation fabric called Sage for the light background and Large Netting Pine Needles from the Blenders Foundation for the dark green backing. These foundations were sent with the 10" stack and were perfect to use with the Forest Flora fabrics.

Before cutting any fabrics, I decided on the layout of the design. There are a lot of creative ways to use the block. I decided on using the dark green background in the border and using the light green Sage as the background in the center blocks as shown below. At first I wanted to make curved corners, but later changed that idea. I also decided not to have the dark green in the four center blocks. Some quilts just tell you what to do!

You may have noticed above that I did something different in some of the center curved blocks. The Drunkards Path block has two curved pieces.

Since the 7" finished Accuquilt Go! die is rather large, I decided to take the outer section from some of the center blocks and piece it in three sections. I love how this looks in the finished quilt.

The curved piecing was very easy with this large block. I used Schmetz needles that sew thru batiks wonderfully and Hobbs Natural Cotton Batting which is a favorite. Four Aurifil threads blended with the fabrics beautifully for the quilting.

This quilt still does not have a name. Leave any name suggestions in the comments and I hope to pick a favorite from one of them!

Many thanks to Island Batik, Hobbs Batting, Aurifil Threads and Schmetz needles for donating products for this project thru the Island Batik Ambassador program.

Be sure and check out the other Ambassadors Drunkards Path Challenge projects below: