Addicted to Scraps: 12 Vibrant Quilt Projects by Bonnie K. Hunter

Review by Carol Dean Jones

Scraps. Those pesky leftovers from projects gone by. One might look at that collection of scraps, wrinkled and twisted from previous searches, and feel discouraged. Bonnie Hunter looks at her scraps and sees spectacular quilts waiting to be created.

What’s the difference? Bonnie Hunter has a method for organizing those scraps. She calls her method The Scrap User’s System, and she shares that system in her book, Addicted to Scraps.

After a few helpful hints, Bonnie Hunter gets to the real meat of this book: 12 stunning, generously-sized bed quilts with easy to follow directions and using those scraps that she has helped the reader organize.

In reading through the patterns, I could see that Bonnie has also developed some unique methods and techniques. For speed and accuracy, she uses the Essential Triangle Tool for cutting and measuring half square triangles, quarter-square triangles, and flying geese units. Bonnie explains how to use the tool; however, the patterns are written with traditional rotary cutting measurements.

Bonnie has scattered tips and shortcuts throughout the book. For example, in her Tropical Twist pattern, she strip-pieced, added a small square, made one cut and had segments for both the body of her quilt and the border simultaneously. A great time-saver!

Speaking of borders, Bonnie’s borders are spectacular. No long strips of fabric for Bonnie. All of her borders are intricately pieced and as eye-catching as her quilts. Now, when I say intricately pieced, that sounds like they are complicated to make and they certainly look complicated, even intimidating.  But once you get into the patterns, you realize they are very simple at the block level. Bonnie is using basic rectangles, squares, and triangles. The complexity comes when the rows are sewn together, and the secondary and tertiary patterns magically appear

Bonnie offers a special feature in Addicted to Scraps. At the end of each set of instructions, she includes a simple image of each finished segment along with arrows marking the direction for seam pressing. She calls this At a Glance, and it clarifies any questions one might have.

Another special feature appears periodically as you turn the pages. Bonnie occasionally inserts a personal column where she talks about her connection to that particular quilt design, offers a hint, or perhaps shares of bit of herself.

I’m still thinking about which quilt to make, but first I intend to organize my workspace by applying her Scrap User’s System to my entire collection of scraps.

Bonnie Hunter is an artist with a love of fabric, an understanding of color, and a skill for developing patterns which make the most of the scraps we all have at our disposal. I know you will find this book as informative and inspiring as I have.

Thank you, Bonnie, for enriching our quilting lives.

Bonnie Hunter’s website: Welcome to Quiltville!!

Addicted to Scraps is available on Amazon and C&T Publishing as well as book stores nationwide.

I received access to a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. Carol Dean Jones, Author, A Quilting Cozy series