Bunny Beauties

Easter is always a special time of year. The spirituality of the day is significant in itself but it is heightened for our house as the one holiday we host for our extended family of 22+ and gather around good food, friendship and love.

Easter dinner is the one guaranteed time of year that we break out the really good pastel colored wine glasses, the silverware, the big white tablecloths and white napkins and my collection of white ceramic bunnies. I spend time thinking about how I’m going to decorate the tables and place settings. In years past I made special table runners that were reused time and again. One year it was a lavender and blue theme with the table piled with gorgeous small pastel Laudaree pastry boxes I’d collected from my many business trips to Paris; while another year had handmade paper chicks at each plate setting I’d made with watercolor, stitching and buttons. A cement garden sculpture bunny has also taken the place of honor as the centerpiece.

This year I wanted to make something new… in fabric….around bunnies. I decided to create fabric collages on some vintage hand towels and bureau scarf I’d gotten from my Mom (a very avid collector of linens!). Each have exquisite embroidery but ample free space to add my own piecework.

Collage is such a free way to create that builds as you go and is a personal process but I needed some artistic help to draw my bunnies. I selected two Pinterest posts as an inspiration for the hand towels . I contacted each artist for approval to post their work here but received reply from only the one below thus far. You can see the influences of Elizabeth St. Hilaire’s piece in my curious bunny but also see my own personal stamp and changes that make my work my own.

Here is my first bunny …I think it looks curious! I used mainly batik fabrics in pinks, greys and beige. Each piece is outlined with stitching and then I highlighted with some light thread sketching:

This next bunny seems to have an attitude….. but I love the grey and white fabric with splashes of pinks and bright yellow. Again, there is outline stitching on each piece with light thread sketching:

My third bunny was created from a photo and centered on a beautifully embroidered bureau scarf. The face and ears are created from 31 pieces of fabric which were then more heavily highlighted with thread sketching. I specifically sketched jaggedly on the ears, chin, top of head and outline of the facial colored area to reflect soft bunny hairs:

I was thrilled with my results and will definitely plan on these cuties for next year’s tables!

Permission my Elizabeth St. Claire via email 4/11/2019.