Scrap Bee Finish and Inspiration

Just finished this quilt from the Scrap Bee players.  Since it's inspiration week, I'll tell the story of what inspired me.  Before the tulips and the border, I was--and always am--inspired by old string quilts.  I love the magic of using what you have to make something beautiful.  So I asked the Scrap Bee players to send simple string pieced blocks.

 Then, in the spirit of using what I had, there were all of these petal shaped scraps from another quilt just sitting there.  What to do?  Well, add them, of course!  There were strips in the quilt that could be seen as stems, so that's how I placed the tulips.

Then I saw an old string quilt that had a red and white polka dot border.  I had about 4 yards of red and white polka dot, just waiting for the right quilt.  I tried it as a border, and it didn't look great.  But the idea for the border was planted.   So I looked in my reds, and found this Hawaiian print.  It screamed, "take me!"  Of course, I had JUST enough for the border.  And just enough of the dots for the back.

That's what inspires me, the old quilts and the magic of using what I have.