What's been inspiring me?

Heavy pic load, watch out dial-up folks!

In the spirit of taking 'the pledge', I thought I'd share some of the things that have been inspiring me.

In an effort to declutter, I pulled some pages from magazines of photos that really 'spoke' to me before tossing the leftovers into the recycling box

First - I'm loving the quilt on the shelf in this photo.  It looks like a great "Leaders & Enders" project to me, so I've collected together some 3.5" bright plaid patches, harvested from recycled shirts. I also pulled out a vintage white muslin sheet but have to cut it yet.

I found this little piece of ephemera folded inside the sheet.  It was brand new, still in it's original packaging, but I barely have a conscious memory of the Walker's store uptown.  So I'm guessing this sheet has been in someone's linen closet for at least 40 years or so. It was a thrift store find from some time back.

I am inspired by this re-do of a cabinet. In fact, I like it so much, I picked up a cabinet at a thrift store early this week, and it's on my back porch waiting for some new legs and a paint job.  When it's done, I'm going to stack up fabric behind the glass doors.  I went looking for some "vintage" feely wallpaper to cover the back of the cabinet, but not any luck yet.  I'll keep looking!  I also like the pillow in the chair, and have been searching online for printable melon templates to copy onto freezer paper.  Again, no luck, but I'll keep searching. 

This soooooo inspires me.  I love it when someone takes the most ordinary thing (which could be picked up on the side of the road!) and reborn into something unique, stylish, and useful!  I don't have room in my laundry room to use something like this - but I wish I did.

I really like this Log Cabin quilt's pieced border.  I'm almost tempted to draft this quilt and recreate it with recycled shirts.  The borders remind me of Bonnie Hunter's "Scrappy Mountain Majesties".

Yesterday, I did un-sew and re-sew Courthouse Stars.  (I will have to wait for the rain to stop before I can take a photo of it.) And afterwards, took all the leftover scraps and pieced them into long strips to work into the backing of the quilt.  I simply melt for pieced backings! 

I picked up a big box of vintage quilt patches at a yard sale in Petrolia a few weeks ago.  Last night I tossed them in the wash.  As I press them into some semblance of order over a process of a couple of days, I bet I'll become inspired.  (Oh...if only I could find a printable template for melons!)

I went to an estate sale of a quilter/knitter/crafter this morning.  I paid $1 for the Hobbs batting, $5 for all the thread (that one big spool of Gutermaan on the top of the pile would have cost me more than that!)  and $20 for the stack of fabric.  Each print is between 4 to 6 yards, and will be good for backings for future quilts.  When the rain slows down, I am going to go back to have another look.  It was just too difficult to look with everything under tarps.  I need two hands to shop!

I also got several cans of Krylon spray paint (a whole bag full at $1.50!) at the church sale next door so I can freshen up a few treasures.  I recently got two gorgeous baskets that will be lovely once I've given them a coat of paint.