The Sacred Heart Quilt
Last year we had a really interesting program at the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild where we spent one whole afternoon learning about the drunkard's path quilt block. While this is a traditional block, many quilters are using variations on this block to make very modern quilts.
I'm not really a "block" quilter, but right away this block gave me a few ideas. And, my goal was to finish this quilt for an official Drunkard's Path Modern challenge by a February deadline for the spring International Quilt Festival in Chicago. Unfortunately, in what seems to be an ongoing trend, I missed the deadline due to everyday-life-events getting in the way of sewing. But I think my guild comrades did enter, and I can't wait to see their quilts in the exhibit next month!
But I digress - I saw a way that you could use this block to create a heart shape, which I imagined as a Sacred Heart, and got a few sketches down in my book.
After thinking about it for a few weeks, I changed my design, and finalized it with a little pattern to help me cut and sew the blocks.
So, working at my own pace, I just finished putting the final stitches on the binding last night!
All of the blue and red fabrics were over-dyed in red, medium blue, and dark blue fiber reactive dyes. I really love the look of over-dyed fabrics for patchwork. The different manufacturing processes, fiber content, and finishing in the fabrics results in really great gradations in the colors. Most of the fabrics are pretty new, but there are a few vintage pieces in there - and the vintage cottons seem to absorb the dyes very well.
The quilting was a no-brainer, I think I had the pattern for the quilting in my mind before even finalizing this design! Echo-quilting in the heart shape, and an outward aura from the center of the circle shape inside the heart. Just a bit of outline quilting in the flame.
I even managed to sneak a bit of Star Trek TOS fabric in one or two blocks (did you see it in there?)!
I made one other little min-quilt with a different drunkard's path block idea which I'll share with you soon, but I think that's about it for me and this block. Time to move on to something new.
What about you - have you ever used the drunkard's path block? And what do you have next on your to-sew list?
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