Granny's Bunnies

I am so excited to have the beginning of a new story to tell!  I'm like my friend, Ruth, in that practically everything  has a story! 

Back in November, Diana and I went to the Davies Manor Quilt Show in Bartlett, Tennessee.  It's a beautiful 1800's plantation that is now a venue to many events.  The land and the house are stunning!  At the quilt show, among many absolutely beautiful quilts was a bunny quilt.  We thought it was the cutest thing and I really wanted to make it!   It's just one of those quilts that make you smile!   We thought we were going to have to draw out our own bunnies to make the quilt, but thankfully, Diana just happened upon the pattern in a Keepsakes catalog!  So much easier when you have the pattern!  She also found the companion pattern using cats, which she just had to have!  The pattern is by Darcy Ashton.  Here is her website, Ashton Publications,and look, Diana, she now has horses...I know what you'll be doing after the cats! 

The quilt that we saw in the show used a different bunny fabric for each block, border, and backing!   I thought how fun that would be, actually having a purpose to go to a quilt shop, lol!, and immediately began my search.  Do you know how difficult it is to find bunny fabric!?  Plenty of cat fabrics for Diana, but not bunnies!  Then I remembered the note attached to the quilt...the maker said it took her years to collect all the fabric!  Ugh!  I did not want  or need another years long quilt!  So, like Dr. Seuss, I thought and wondered and wondered and thought.

 

And then I had a light bulb moment!  Which is so much better than a duh moment! 

Many years ago, my granny gave me a tied denim quilt.  We took that quilt with us everywhere!  It was a car quilt, picnic quilt, sports watching quilt, camping quilt, you name it, we used it!  And eventually we just about used it up!  Since the edges had worn, seams had frayed, and a lot of the ties had worn out, I decided I'd take it apart, replace the batting, repair and re-tie it, and keep on using it up.  That's where it got exciting!  Instead of batting, my granny had used an old quilt!  I couldn't believe it and yet I could.  That frugalness and using-what-you-have attitude was definitely a part of Granny's life.  By now that old quilt had really seen better days.  I wanted to share the quilt with my sister and parents so I cut out the best blocks, removed the backing and batting, leaving the quilting stitches, and had them framed.  This one is mine. 

Which left this:

I've been carrying this cut-up old quilt around with me for years.  I didn't know what to do with it.  Until now.  Care to take an unnecessary guess?!  I decided to cut the bunnies out of the quilt!  

I laid out the patterns and cut generously around them.  Once again, I removed the backing and the batting but kept what I could of the quilting stitches.  Talk about a mess!  The batting was nothing but big and little wads of cotton.  It was white, clean cotton after all the laundering it had been through, but it was a mess.  I had cotton everywhere!  Maggie ended up looking like a speckled Scottie!  I even had a dream of balls of cotton floating through my house and my only comment in my dream was, "Now we can see how the air moves in our house!"  When I told my friend, Burma, about this, she said, "You really had dust bunnies!"  Ha, ha!

All the bunnies are now fused to the background and ready for the hand work. 

I found this wonderful rick rack fabric at Hancock's. It's perfect for the colors in the bunnies and I know Granny would love it because of the rick rack! 

So, 30 bunnies cut out of it later, this is what it looks like:

I'm still not throwing it away just yet.  I have a few more ideas!  And maybe, someday, I'll get around to finally fixing that old denim quilt!

LaDonna