Categorizing Drunkard's Path type quilting patterns

Abstract

The Drunkard's Path quilt block is a basic square quilt block consisting of a quarter circle in one corner on a square of some contrasting fabric. In this paper, we use symmetry to organize a library of quilting patterns using the Drunkard's Path quilt block. The organizational strategy begins by arranging the basic quilt blocks into $2\times 2$ squares that we call arrangements. We categorize these arrangements by symmetry type. We also act upon the arrangements by rotations, reflections, and colour exchanges, using the results to produce $4\times 4$ squares that we call tiles. These tiles are subsequently considered as tiles for quilt tops, thereby giving fodder for analysis of the underlying wallpaper symmetry groups and sometimes even two-colour symmetry patterns. Over 90 of the $4\times 4$ tiles are shown representing just a small number of the possible quilt patterns.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Drunkard's Path
• quilting
• wallpaper symmetry patterns
• two-colour symmetry patterns
• quarter-circle quilt patterns

Acknowledgements

A very special thanks go out the reviewers whose comments immensely improved this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.