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Drunkard's Path
 Drunkard's Path
Finley
1929
This block is the grand old man of Drunkard's Path blocks.
Our example is from Ruth Finley's 1929 book Old Patchwork Quilts: And the Women Who Made Them. It was interspersed with fancy quilting in Finley's version.
A half-dozen or more variations of the block are exactly like this except for different proportions in the miniblocks (that is, larger and smaller quarter circles). For all practical purposes, they are the same block.
You can use any of the alternative names above and know that somewhere, sometime, somebody put it in print and called it what you do. |
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Around the World
 Around the World
Hall
1935 From Hall's 1935 Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America comes this interesting arrangement, which we have not seen anywhere else.
There is no "path" in the finished quilt, but we think it's one of the most appealing designs of the Drunkard's Path group.
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Falling Timber
 Falling Timber
Hall
1935
In quilting's grand tradition of borrowing, Easy Quilts also included two designs from the Kansas City Star: Chainlinks, which is very similar to Chain Quilt (1942), and Diagonal Stripes, an extended String Quilt in a Seashell Motif (1956). |
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Vine of Friendship
 Vine of Friendship
Hall
1935
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Nonesuch
 Nonesuch  Nonesuch
Hall
1935
From Carrie Hall, who included the alternative name Love Ring, and Easy Quilts (ca. 1958). |
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Chain Quilt/Chainlinks
 Chain Quilt Chain Quilt
Kansas City Star
1942
This Kansas City Star block from 1942 also appeared in Easy Quilts, an Aunt Martha booklet, 16 years later. While the Star's block looked exactly as it does at left, the Aunt Martha version (Chainlinks, Diagonal Stripes) had slightly larger quarter circles. It is that version that we used for our a whole-quilt mockup in magenta, right.
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String Quilt in a Seashell Motif
String Quilt in a Seashell Motif String Quilt in a Seashell Motif
Kansas City Star
1956 String Quilt in a Seashell Motif
String quilting was a Depression-inspired style that became a quilter favorite again in the early 21st century, long after thrift and quilting had parted ways.
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Wonder of the World
Wonder of the World (LAC) Wonder of the World
LAC #46
1897
Ladies Art Company #46, 1897. Clara Stone's Practical Needlework (1906) also included it. Stone's Wandering Path of the Wilderness block was a four patch of smaller blocks (rather than a nine patch like this one).
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Wonder of the World
 Wonder of the World (Hall)Wonder of the World
Hall
1935
Hall's Wonder of the World is simply a two-color version of the Fool's Puzzle block below. |
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Drunkard's Path
 Drunkard's Path
Hall
1935
This is Carrie Hall's version of Drunkard's Path. "'Drunkard's Path' or 'Rocky Road to Dublin' before 1849," she wrote, "Then called 'Rocky Road to California' or 'Country Husband.' In Salem, Ohio, it was called 'Robbing Peter to Pay Paul.'"
She continued, "The design is easy enough to arrange once a start is made — and this is not a temperance lecture either."
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Drunkard's Trail
Drunkard's Trail
Drunkard's Trail
KCS, 1942
The Kansas City Star came up with this block in 1942.
In that era, drinking till you were a hair past tipsy was more acceptable socially than it is now. As our own dear Grandad put it, "If ye can say it's a braw bricht moonlicht nicht y'are richt, ye ken."
Certainly, this block illustrates how it felt to be of two minds about the route home. Grandad had a song or two about that too.
Click on the "Make It!" icon for a diagram. |
Drunkard's Path blocks
Fool's Puzzle