Bunny Applique Quilt
Today I’m talking about this applique bunny quilt that I made per my 3-year-old daughter’s request – there is no pattern – this is just one I made up as I went along. I finished this up in February 2024. The request was specifically: “A rainbow bunny quilt with dark blue and orange carrots”.
Fabric & Materials
The fabric for the top was all solids purchased from my local quilt shop. We went in and purchased 1/2-yard cuts of most fabrics used with the exception of the polka fabric I got a yard of. I went in without a plan, which ended up challenging me in good ways as I was working my way through this quilt. These are 12-inch blocks, 4×4 with a two-inch sashing – so the quilt finished around 54″ x 54″ – perfect for a 3-year-old. Each row had two applique blocks and two pinwheels.
Backing
For the backing I used Shannon Cuddle fabric for the first time – I really liked this a lot! I will be using it again for sure. I got it in the Pastel Tie Dye color from Fat Quarter Shop. I also used this for the bunny tails which added a nice touch!
Applique Materials
For the applique portion of this bunny quilt (which I’ll talk a bit more about below on how I made the shapes) – I used this Steam a Seam Fusible I got from Amazon. I really liked this product and the quilt is not stiff at all.
Batting
For the batting, I used the Warm Company White Cotton Batting. I purchased a huge roll of natural and white on a Black Friday sale. Here is the link to the batting. I chose to use the white for this quilt because of the white color of the polka dot fabric. I think it worked out really nice.
Techniques
I used Canva to find the shapes I was after to create the carrots and the bunnies. I think I’ll make a YouTube video on that in the near future if anyone is interested in how. But essentially, I created a document that was 8″x10″, looked for shapes I thought I would work well and fit them to the page. It worked out really nicely. I did use a fancy stitch around the outside, it kind of looked like the stitching on the baseball to me. Overall, I was really happy with how it came out. It did take quite a bit of trial and error to find a thread/stitch combo I was happy with!
To see more about how I use Canva to create applique blocks – check out this video!
Quilting
I quilted this really simply with a walking-foot. The batting said it could be quilted 10 inches apart. So, I did the best I could to quilt it 10 inches apart both horizontally and vertically. I tried to avoid stitching over the applique shapes, but if you look closely, I did occasionally cross over.
The biggest challenge for me was my machine didn’t seem to want to “grab” the cuddly fabric when I was quilting this. It took some fiddling (and a few choice words) to finally get into a groove. I definitely would use this backing again, but depending on your machine – just know it is a little different (for me) than sewing typical cotton. But once you get into the groove, it worked out well!
Binding
I didn’t have enough of any fabric left to bind the quilt. But I also didn’t want to buy more fabric. I was going to use another purple that didn’t match exactly to bind this quilt originally. But then, I had a great idea when I was in the shower (where all great ideas happen) – to use strips of all the colors to create the binding. I really LOVED how this came out. In my next quilt, I think I’m going to take this to the next level and make a scrappy binding with even smaller pieces so the color changes more frequently – so stay tuned for that! Maybe it will be a March 2024 finish!
Lessons Learned
A lesson I continue to learn is that I need to get even more detailed in my basting. More pins closer together. This reminds me I should actually be buying more pins. I get frustrated quilting when I can’t seem to avoid little pleats. I think this is because my basting isn’t as precise as it should be.
Wrap Up
I loved making this applique bunny quilt for my daughter, and was my only but also favorite finish of this month. This is actually the first quilt I’m also entering into Quilting Jetgirl’s Favorite Finish linky party. To see other great quilts people finished in the month of February – check out her post here.
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Basting is not a favorite step and I have needed to learn (and relearn) repeatedly over the years how important it is. I now rotate my basting pins – one goes up down, the next goes side to side – AND I add basting pins outside the quilt top to the batting and backing, and that has really improved things for me. What a fun collaboration with your daughter, I hope she is thrilled with the quilt and gets lots of years of love and use with it. Thank you for linking up with Favorite Finish!
Good tips. I have started putting pins around the outside, but have never given thought as to what direction the pins go in. I’ll keep that in mind for the next one – great idea! Thank you – she was very happy, she kept telling me it was “fine” as it was coming together (which did cause me to roll my eyes) – but in the end she was a very happy customer!