Paper Bunny Quilt (Bunny Week 2021, Day 1)

Welcome to Bunny Week 2021! Bunny Week is an annual tradition here at My Creative Life where we celebrate All Things Rabbit. (Catch Phrase: It's Like Shark Week, but Fuzzier!) 

I'm starting off Bunny Week 2021 with a bunny-inspired paper quilt.

I really like quilts and admire the work that goes into making them. I used to think I wanted to learn to sew a quilt, but over time I realized I just like designing quilts. I love the process of picking the colors and shapes and arranging them to make something beautiful and unique. It gives me another way to play with paper, which is one of my very favorite things to do. 

My primary goal for this quilt was to feature grey rabbits in a soothing, gender-neutral palette. One of my longtime pet peeves is that many rabbit fabrics, patterned papers, and other craft items that feature rabbits are predominantly pink, and often over-the-top girlie. The worst are the ones that say Baby Girl on them. Ugh. Rabbits are loved by people of all ages and genders, and the rabbits themselves are not all female. (Steps off soapbox....)

My inspiration for the design came from photos of fellow rabbit owners who have bonded pairs, trios, and quads. Trouble is an only rabbit and is bonded with us, but many rabbits prefer to have a lagomorph companion. Bonded rabbits spend much of their day snuggling, sometimes side-by-side and other times face-to-face. My favorite bonded trio, sadly now over the Rainbow Bridge, are Bunya, Ethel, and Lucy from the Rabbit Ramblings blog. 

I started my project with a sketch, as I often do because of my aphantasia. I pulled out grey cardstock for my bunnies, cream for a background, and several shades of soft greens, blues, and peaches, which you can see at the top of this photo:

I ended up using just the grey, cream, and two shades of green. I cut the greens and cream into 2" squares, then cut those in half to make triangles, then cut some of those in half to make smaller triangles. Then I played around with the design. In the photo above, you can see that I'm trying out pinwheels (complete in bottom two squares) and the blockier design I ended up using (partially done in the upper two squares). Then I cut out grey bunny bodies and ears, plus cream-colored cottontails. Once I finalized my design, I glued all the triangles in place, added the bunnies, gave them Sharpie eyes and noses, trimmed the background paper, and matted it with grey. 

I love how my paper quilt turned out! I'm going to continue to play with this motif on PicMonkey, digitally switching out the colors and tinkering with the arrangement to see if I can design something I love even more.