I've been turning over in my mind what to do with the Christmas charms I got from Emily's Christmas charm swap. I didn't need to use them in my table runner and didn't want to leave them there till next year. I have some other projects going on in the background but today I decided to try and start a Christmas quilt for snuggling under during the holidays. I also wanted to try something different to my usual square/straight line patterns and I have a Drunkard's Path die for my Accuquilt Go! Baby. I have been watching some great Drunkard's Path quilts turn up on blogs in the last few months, so decided to go with that.
I do love the Go! Baby. My pieces were cut in double quick time from the charms - and perfectly too. Then I started to piece but it did not go smoothly I must admit. I tried pinning just in the middle and at either end, but could not get my pieces as accurate as I wanted. So I started pinning all the way around and that did help. I also ran into some tension issues on the second half of each curve, I'm not sure if it was just a threading problem or if it was something to do with how I was matching the fabric. Yikes!
I was relieved to see once I pieced the 4 quarter circles together, it did look a little better than I anticipated, thanks to a little easing of the fabrics to get seams matching. The blue and white one is not great. It seems off centre and the circles are not even, nor are the points matching. The red, green and white one is definitely better, but still not brilliant. When I squared off the block, it is at least presentable rather than disastrous. But I would hate to think that I can't improve on these. One or two like this will not be noticeable in an overall quilt, but a whole quilt of them - no way!
So at this stage I'm a little disheartened. Those of you who are experienced Drunkards, any advice? (I'll take advice from experienced drunks too!) Is it a flow thing with the curved piecing? Will practice make it quicker and easier? How can I speed it up because these 2 were VERY slow!! And as you can see above, I have lots of piecing to do.
All drunk and sober words of wisdom very welcome ;-)
PS - Don't forget to pop over to my Circa 1934 giveaway before Friday evening to enter!
