Bonnie's Bargain Basement....Part 1

I suppose I'm probably not easily impressd. And when I am, it's not Baltimore Album quilts that do it for me. I think a quilter needs to have the ability to 'endure', 'to make do', and to understand the humble legacy that American quilt making grows from. Not many Baltimore Album quilts were pieced on the Oregon Trail.This quilt top, of Bonnie's, could have been. And I love it! It does not pretend to be anything that it isn't.
Here are Bonnie's words, speaking about making this quilt top: "While I was cutting strips for the Superbowl Bargello party for this Sunday, I started cutting other sizes too to play with some block ideas I had....and yes..I sewed last night until midnight and this is what I've got! This went SO FAST!
All of the little random 4 patches and geese units were SUPPOSED to be where plain 3.5" cut squares were to go, but why cut squares, when I can dig into this drawer of rejected pieced units and use them instead of the 3.5" squares?! The geese units were a partially pieced border. I took them apart into pairs...some of the geese turned direction in the border, so it left this little square in square thingy..throw that in too..make the geese turn all different directions!
There were red/gold 4 patches that were a rejected cornerstone from another project. Only had 4 of those, but throw them in! A couple red/plaid hourglass blocks that were a test? Add them too!
And THEN...there were these brown gingham/solid red half square triangles that were going to be the sashings of the "swing your partner" quilt before I rejected them for a darker fabric....throw those in and turn them every which way, and voila!
Yes, my dear Scarlett, Solid red IS a neutral!

Bargain Basement, Quilter Style....Part 2

and who better to come up with this gorgeous Orphan block and bits quilt than our very own Bonnie, from Quiltville *VBS*I was blog hopping yesterday, waiting for the computer guy to return and install that additional memory and do bit more cleaning up. I popped over to see what Bonnie was up to, besides beginning a new mystery("Orange Crush") at Quiltville and with her mystery group.
Along with another whole top, apparently pieced over the past week or weekend(she amazes me with her speed!) I found this beauty.
I had to put it's name into the 'Search this blog' to find it's beginnings(which were only a short ago...LOL. I dropped her an email to ask for permission to share her quilt here, since it has soooooooo many of the elements this challenge and blog are about. She said "yes" with a big smile for all. And my message to you?? "ITS OK TO USE SPARE PARTS"!!!!! Honest!
This is the backing "Bargain Basement", and her words explaining the final result of the Bargain Basement effort.
Bonnie said:"So here are the photos of Bargain Basement!I did tall dogteeth borders, and following the lead of our quilters past, I just let the borders end where the borders end...so all the corners are slightly different. Talk about fun and no stress!
The big red plaid in the border was from a lady's jumper that I took apart. There was a ton of red plaid in that jumper! (It was a 3XXX!) The black homespun plaid binding was actually a bathrobe...yes...made out of homespun, just like we'd buy off the bolt. Lots of yardage in that too.
The back....I used up fabric from a skirt...the blue gingham with the fruit on it, and some other older yardage that had a "plaidy-stripe-y" feel to it. Seems like I've been trying to get rid of that bolt of blue noah's ark fabric for ever. I've still got a lot of that in tan too! I used the left over dog tooth border in the back as well." Thank you so much Bonnie...it's wonderful!

Bonnie's Orphans...

This is the quilt that Bonnie built....*VBS* And is uniquely her, I think, in a way that belongs to scrap quilters. That plus the personal message around the outer border, done in Tonya's fabulous free form letters.
Bonnie began playing with these blocks in early January 2006, I think the last border was on by January 2007. The top had been to together, but the pieced letters took time. It is a quilt in progress at this time, being hand quilted.
I'm posting links to blogs as well, so you'll be able to go and see these quilts and read the maker's comments.
The link to Bonnie is http://quiltville.blogspot.com/