Folk art embroidery: Andrea Zuill and the black rabbit

~Stay tuned for the May Giveaway !~

Here's a little bunny created by Andrea Zuill, a painter, designer, and quilter based in Southern California. Andrea works in many different media, and her embroidery designs often have a whimsical, innocent "naif" style to them, which is associated with folk art.

Black rabbit quilt, 24 x 30, by Andrea Zuill, at Andrea Zuill.com

We think that the black bunny is adorable, because he seems very young, and he seems to occupy a timeless, enchanted world, surrounded by flowers, leaves, and other decorations that complement his rounded shape. To emphasize his shape and to make sure that he doesn't blend into the background, Andrea has used electric blue thread to hand-quilt the bunny in an "echo" pattern which further defines his shape. Click on the image below to see the detail, and you will be able to see the outline stitching around the bunny and the blanket stitching around some of the flowers.

For the post explaining the construction of this project, please see:  black rabbit quilt is finished  at Badbird's (Andrea Zuill's blog).

Her artwork has been described as sometimes dark, sometimes humorous, and generally figurative in nature. She also writes a very humorous blog: for her funny descriptions of 9 different kinds of quilters, see the post called Line that Divide.  She explains: "Folk Art Quilters are very close to Art Quilters. What makes a Folk Art Quilter is simplistic expressive designs and the inability to make even stitches. Flaws are acceptable, they’re Folk Artists for goodness sakes."

Andrea also creates beautiful quilts with light-hearted, upbeat designs. Each month, she offers a free embroidery pattern (in April's embroidery pattern, you can find a fierce little hummingbird). For a wonderful "Rabbit Queen" pattern, click here.  

Andrea Zuill has a fascinating shop on Etsy where you can find her artwork and unusual embroidery patterns; see Badbird's Art and Embroidery Patterns .