Recently I posted a photo of the very first quilt I started. That quilt took MANY years for me to finish. I began working on it when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter. I finished it after she graduated from high school. Shortly after starting that quilt, I discovered I was pregnant. Wanting to make a quilt for the baby (who everyone was certain was a boy due to a family “curse” that had been responsible for no girls being born for 17 years), I put aside the Feathered Star quilt and chose to work on this bunny pattern from Quick Rotary Cutter Quilts. I was convinced I was having a girl and thought this quilt would be perfect for either gender. (We didn’t ask baby’s gender when we had the ultrasound, preferring it to be a surprise.)

I learned so many things while making this quilt. First and foremost, I learned to never, ever cut out all of the pieces for a quilt at once. Being still rather inept at sewing, I think I ended up with every bunny block being a different size and none of them matching the size of the strips that I had cut that were to be sewn to the side of the block. This wouldn’t have been such a big deal if the bunnies were smaller than those strips, but as the bunnies were bigger, I ended up needing to cut new strips. Thankfully I had purchased plenty of fabric! I also learned how to properly attach the walking foot to my machine. There were hours of frustration, hours spent wondering why it wasn’t working properly and what even the point of the foot was as it didn’t seem to be doing anything, before one phone call to my mother provided the answer. I hadn’t attached it properly.

Each bunny block is comprised of approximately 70 different pieces! This was definitely not an easy project for a beginner, but I am not one to be stopped by a challenge. I also made crib bumpers from the cloud fabric and the dark blue fabric.

When we pulled this quilt out of the my daughter’s cedar chest to take a photo of it today, I was struck by how thin it is, evidence of how well-loved and well-used it was.