Scraps & Shirttails: Reuse, Repupose, Recycle! The Art of Quilting Green Paperback – September 23, 2008

For those of you who are familiar with Bonnie Hunter and her style of organizing fabrics, this review probably won't even be necessary. You'll want anything she has written. She's an amazingly talented person. Not only in her organizing skills, but in her quiltmaking and designing abilities, too. Bonnie teaches us to re-purpose older clothing for use as a part of our stash. Boy, do I feel thrifty after adopting her practice as my own. It's amazing how much usable fabric you can get just from a big man's shirt!There are twelve quilt patterns plus one for an attractive and simple shopping bag. Bonnie also shows us how to use up those strips and scraps of batting left over from sandwiching a quilt. This one's a great money-saver.The first quilt in the book, Virginia Bound, is one of my favorites. It's an "old clothing" one, but no one would ever know. It has an optical illusion look to it that's so lovely. Another of my favorites is Bargain Basement which, although it has a lot of equilateral triangles, is not difficult and is really fun to look at. The best part is that it's made using all recycled fabrics.And then there's the Denim Rails! All you do is make a big bunch of Rail Fence and Nine Patch blocks, sew them together according to Bonnie's lay-out and you've got one of the prettiest all jeans quilt I've ever seen. I've made a few of these. My family happily donates their old jeans and everyone gets back a lifetime quilt. This is one of those "keeper" books that I never lend out. I might never see it again!

I just bought this book and read it cover to cover. It is truly great. Bonnie explains her philosophy behind her decision to "quilt green" and it all makes sense ( but it is in no sense a "preachy" explanation). She talks about different batting options and fabric companies that have started to make more earth friendly products and it's great to be made aware of them. Apart from explaining where she buys her used clothing to use in quilts,she also explains how to take it apart to get the most use, and how she organizes it( by color and size). Then the book has some great patterns for wonderful scrap quilts but you can ofcourse use your stash to make these as well as using used clothing ( in fact, Bonnie explains what part of the quilts are from her own stash, so for all you quilters who have tons of fabric already, this book is still for you). She even explains how to join all your little left-over batting pieces so that you can use those all up as well.As for me, I can see where I'll start looking for some neat old clothing to incorporate into my quilts, as well as using up some of my stash.This book gets two thumbs up from this quilter!

Great book to use old shirts

I've bought lots of fabric from the quilt shop, paying a premium price, and it's still sitting on my shelves because I didn't have the nerve to "mess it up"; being a new quilter, I was kind of paralized with fear to use it. Then I found Bonnie Hunter. Somehow, using recycled shirts as fabric seems a lot less intimidating, and I feel a new freedom to just go ahead and do it. This is for those who like a scrappy style, because obviously a shirt only yields just so much fabric, right?

Love the book. Just wondering why delivery time was more than a month

Great inspiration for converting your favorite shirts (or those of a loved one) to usable keepsakes. Nice photos throughout.

Nice reference book

I like bonnie hunters quilts

Great for recyclers

Bonnie did an amazing job on this book. The instructions are very clear and easy to follow. I have recommended this book to many of my friends.

Another wonderful Bonnie Hunter book. I love reusing when making quilts, and this explains he methods for turning men's cotton shirts into quilts. Wonderful book.