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EASTER BUNNY PARADE WALL HANGING












Is the Easter Bunny coming to your home?? Why not add this wall hanging to welcome the season and the Easter Bunny into your home? This project is quick and easy before you know it the bunnies will be holding hands across your wall. The three main blocks are paper-pieced and the borders and binding are added after the bunny blocks are pieced. The bunny ears are added while paper piecing. Why not make some extra wall hangings for the bunny lovers in your home?

Wall-Hanging:
The completed wall handing is 24 inches in length and 12 inches deep. The bunny blocks are 6 inches square with two borders. The first border is one inch finished and the second is a 2-inched finished pieced border. We made our shop sample using pastel colors but don’t stop here, let your imagination run wild!

For each wall hanging you will need:
Fabric A (background) 0.5m (1/2 yd)
Fabric B (girl bunny’s dresses) 0.3m (1/3 yd)
Fabric C (boy bunny overalls) 0.3m (1/3 yd)
Fabric D (bunny hands and face) 0.1m (1/8 yd)
Batting approximately 24” x 12”
Backing approximately 24” x 12”

Click Here for Printable Pattern - Boy Bunny

Click Here for Printable Pattern - Girl Bunny


Cutting
Fabric A cut one 2 ½” strips and set aside for outside border
Fabric B cut two 2” strips for binding
- cut one 2 ½” strip for outside border, set to one side
Fabric C cut two 1 ½” strip for inside border
- cut one 2 ½” strip for outside border, set to one side

The remaining fabric will be used for paper piecing the bunny blocks.

How to Paper Piece:
Paper piecing is a technique for piecing your quilting blocks together. It is a very accurate way to piece. A pattern printed on paper is used as a guide and the fabric is placed on the back of the paper. All the stitching is done from the paper side, following the printed lines. Paper piecing is often done on a fine paper (like a tracing paper) that is easy to remove after the piecing is complete. When paper piecing be sure to change your sewing machine needle to a larger size and adjust your stitch length to a short stitch. You should be stitching around 20 stitches per inch.

Locate the number “1” on your paper piece pattern cut a square of fabric at least ½” larger than the section in which the number “1” is located in. Pin this fabric on the back of the paper, coving the complete number “1” section. The wrong side of the fabric should be directly up against the paper. Hold the pattern up to the light to be sure the number “1” section is completely covered by the fabric and there is an at least an extra ½” around all edges for the seam allowance. Next, take the fabric that will become the fabric for section “2”. Line this fabric up with the raw edge from number “1” so that when stitched, fabric “2” will be folded over the number “2” section. Turn the pattern over to the paper side, keeping the fabrics in place and stitch on the line between sections “1” and “2”. Fold the paper pattern back and trim away excess fabric leaving a ¼” seam. Iron or finger press the seam.

This might be a bit confusing at first because it feels like you are working opposite to how you should with the fabric on the bottom and stitching on the paper. After the initial piece of fabric has been pinned in place, right side up and on the back of the paper pattern, all remaining pieces are stitched with the fabric right sides together. After the fabrics have been lined up, and you have checked the pattern by holding it up to the light to ensure the stitching line is covered, the pattern is flipped to the top and stitched on the line. Continue working through the block number by number until the block is complete.

The bunny blocks are made up of a number of different paper pieced sections that are cut apart and stitched back together after the paper piecing is complete. The girl rabbit block contains 3 different sections (the head, the arms and middle and the skirt). The boy rabbit block contains four different sections (the head, the arms, the pants top, and the pants bottom). Remember to add the ears to the paper pieced top section just before stitching the final fabric piece (piece #4 in the head section). Taking two completed ear sections per bunny block, line the ears up to the head section, matching raw edges. Baste in place. Continue to paper piece, trimming back to a ¼” to reduce the thickness.

To Make that Bunny Ears
To make the pattern piece for the bunny ears, cut out a 3” x 1 ½” rectangle. Mark the center point of the width at the top of the rectangle. Now measure down each long side and place a mark at the 1” measurement. Starting at this 1” measurement on one side, curve out to the center point marked on the top and then curve down to the 1” mark on the opposite side. You should now have a bunny shaped ear that has a straight bottom and is rounded at the top. Cut out two pairs of ears for each bunny for a total of six pairs. Each individual ear is made by placing two ear sections right sides together, matching raw edges. Stitch around the outside of the ear leaving the bottom section open for turning. Turn to right side through opening and press. Fold ear in half and baste along bottom to hold in place.

Putting It All Together
Stitch bunny blocks together with the order of the blocks going girl, boy, girl (or if you want- boy, girl, boy). Taking Fabric C, stitch the first border. Sew the border strips on the top and bottom of the quilt first, then stitch on the sides. The second border is pieced using a combination of all three colors from the bunny’s clothes and the background. The border can be pieced by strip quilting or by sewing individual 2 ½” squares together. Once again, sew the completed pieced border on the top and bottom of the quilt, and then add the side borders.

Bunny Faces
The faces of the bunny are embroidered on using two strands of embroidery floss. In our shop sample we used three colors, a blue for the eyes, a pink for the mouth and a black for the nose and whiskers. You might want to play around with some other types of faces.

Backing and Batting
Taking the backing, lay it flat on a smooth surface, wrong side facing up. Using masking tape, anchor the backing to the surface. Place the batting on top of the backing, smoothing the batting out. Center the quilt top onto the batting and backing. For small projects like this wall hanging, you might want to try using a spray adhesive. This is a wonderful product that will temporarily fuse your backing to the batting and the batting to the top. It is quick and easy to use (follow the instructions on the can) and does not gum up the needle. The best part about the spray adhesive is there is no additional basting or pinning required.

Quilting
Quilt the wall hanging as desired. We used an invisible thread on the top and a cotton thread in the bottom. We stitched-in-the-ditch around the borders. Each bunny was also stitched around the outline. By sure to leave the bunny ears 3-D by not catching them in your quilting.

Binding
Taking the strips set aside for binding, join the two strips together. Place the strips at a 45-degree angle and stitch from edge to edge. Trim away the excess fabric. Fold the joined strip in half, wrong sides together and press. Place the binding on the front of the quilt, matching raw edges, leaving approximately 4” for the beginning of the binding not sewn. You will later attach the other end of the binding strip to this raw edge. Sew the binding to the quilt using a ¼” seam allowance. Continue stitching until you are about ¼” from the corner backstitch and remove the needle from the fabric. Now, taking the binding strip in one hand, fold the binding up and away from the quilt, this will make a diagonal fold of the fabric coming into the quilt. Now, taking that same binding strip, fold the strip down, making a straight edge that is even with the quilt and the binding strip containing down the next side. Stitch to the next corner and repeat the process. Once you are on the remaining side, join the binding strips together. Fold the binding to the back of the quilt and blind stitch the binding in place.