drunkard's path - QuiltCon 2019, Part 2

The Drunkard’s Path is a traditional quilt block with a long, if debated, history. Our knowledge of the history of any particular quilting block or motif is primarily dependent upon oral tradition, and it often reaches far beyond the expected domestic sphere in which we might couch our expectations. This block is a great example of this. 

According to some sources (links below), the Drunkard’s Path may link to shapes found in ancient Egypt and Rome. In fact, it is also known as Solomon’s Puzzle. Some oral traditions suggest a link to Underground Railroad directions. But the history that links directly to its name is the Women’s Temperance Movement and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (founded in the mid-1870s). Although the block, in its simplest form, may consist of a circle within a square, when the cut pieces are separated and shifted, they can create the crooked line of a “drunkard’s path.”

I found the Drunkard’s Path reinterpreted in so many of the quilts at QuiltCon. Now, over 6 years sober, I found this personally intriguing (synchronicity?), but also fascinating to see how a very simple design can be re-envisioned by each artist. Here are two new selections and two repeats from part 1.

The Modern Drunk, Jodi Robinson, @jodidesigns (Pennsylvania, USA). Best Machine Quilting (Framed, Needle Moves). “This is my modern interpretation of using the very traditional Drunkard’s Path block. I love to create very graphic large-scale quilts, and then add machine quilting that enhances the quilt design without overpowering it. My goal with the quilting was to add the illusion of movement, the illusion that the shapes are expanding out from the center of the quilt.”

(Techniques: machine pieced, machine quilted on a frame – the needle moved over the stationary quilt, such as a long-arm machine)

Modern Times, Jenny Haynes (Sheffield, UK). Modern Traditionalism. “The cogs, stems or caterpillar wheels turn this way and that in this indescribable creation that grew from play with the two classic blocks, the New York Beauty and the Drunkard’s Path. When Making comes from play and pure joy, the subject can be hard to pin down. What do you see?”

Quilted by Joë Bennison.
(Techniques: machine pieced, machine quilted on a frame – the needle moved over the stationary quilt)

Refraction (please see Part 1)

Single Helix (please see Part 1)

Sources: 

America’s Quilting History: The Power of Women’s Temperance Movement Quilts

A History of the Drunkard’s Path Quilt Patterns (Accuquilt)

Solomon’s Puzzle Bible Quilt Block Pattern

Drunkard’s Path (Quilter’s Cache). An example of how the quilt block can pieced for the traditional crooked path.