Bonnie Hunter Introduces Scrap-Savvy Quilting
Hello, everyone!
I’m tickled to be appearing on the C&T blog today – we’ve had something rather special in the works behind the scenes for quite some time and it is time to let this cat out of the bag!
I was approached by the fabulous Roxanne Cerda with a proposal to do a big and beautiful “greatest hits” kind of book featuring 30 fabulous scrap quilts from my previous titles all in one volume.
And to top it off, let’s make it hard cover!
Here I am holding my first copy after opening the package in my own studio space. As is – hair messy, quilty tee shirt (likely covered with threads but hidden by the book) and so excited to have it in my hands.
I wish this post could come with “smell-o-vision!” because opening a brand new book for the first time just has *THAT* aroma that is so wonderful to an author’s olfactory nerves. There is nothing like the smell of a new book.
But I digress! I want to share with you just what you’ll find in Scrap Savvy –
Not only are there 30 different quilts gathered from my previous titles all in one volume, but all of the hints, helps, tips and tricks are in here as well.
The quilt projects run from working with simple strip piecing and cutting into squares, to working with triangles including both traditional rotary cutting measurements, and tutorials for working with my Essential Triangle tool which will have you cutting from strips, saving fabric, increasing accuracy and making better use of your time.
One thing I’m sure of: “Once you go scrappy, there’s no turning back!” The beauty of a scrap quilt is in the sheer variety of fabrics in many different styles, genres, colors and more that you can include.
If your sewing room is anything like mine you’ve got scraps galore – Left over jelly roll strips, trimmings from backings, borders, bindings. Partial charm packs left after you picked out the ones you REALLY liked, and fabrics that have been gathered, gifted, gleaned, foraged and found through your own quilting journey.
You can find the best way to work with your own scraps either by throwing everything in and separating your fabrics by colors and neutrals or choose a color palette where everything goes as long as fabrics are kept in color families.
There is never a danger of not having enough of any one thing – because if we run out, we just throw in something else within that color range.
There are even quilts featuring my love of working with recycled fabrics from 100% cotton shirts.
Simple piecing, dynamic quilts with loads of impact from scraps you may already have on hand.
For the paper piecing lovers (Oh, how I love foundation paper piecing!) You’ll find fabulous ways to stitch up a miriad of small precious scraps with the provided templates for Pineapple Crazy, and Wild & Goosey. Have you been saving all of those cut-off corners from doing things like stitch& flip where you sew the diagonal of a square to another piece and trim? All of those cut off and saved pieces will find a delightful home in foundation pieced quilt blocks.
And don’t forget the strings!
Strings? What do we mean strings?
Strings are narrow strips of fabric anywhere from 3/4’’ up to 1 3/4’’ that are too narrow for most piecing, but too precious to want to throw away.
If you love string piecing, you’ll have a blast making Xing, Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll, Daylilies, Fair & Square, Sand Castles, Virginia Bound, Cactus Patch and Blue Skies, as shown on the book cover.
This beautiful volume is ready for you to dive in. There is something for every kind of quilt piecer, no matter what kind of piecing you like.
Put that stash to good use. Down to the last saved piece.
I can’t wait to see what you make.
It’s my hope that Scrap Savvy will find a place on your bookshelf, your coffee table, your cutting table and be a source of scrap quilt inspiration for decades to come.
Some quilts will always be classic and always in style. Those are the scrap quilts that tell the story of the scraps that have come through our lives as quilters.
If only these quilts could talk!
And always remember –
“If it’s still ugly, you just haven’t cut it small enough.”
Much love from Virginia –
Bonnie
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Blog post by Bonnie Hunter
