Selvage Tumbler by Karen Griska    

Here is what Karen told me about this quilt:

When Eileen (Karen's sister) and I went to the AQS show in Paducah, we saw vendor Pat Yamin of “Come Quilt with Me.” She sells lots of plastic templates, fabrics, and the “Brooklyn Revolver,” a lazy Susan style cutting mat. She is also a founding member of my guild, Empire Quilters in NYC. Eileen and I stopped to talk with her at the show and we saw her new template, a 7 inch tall tumbler. I said something like, “Oh what a great template. There is so much you can do with something like this!”  Pat gave me one, saying that I could make her something with it. Make anything, she said. How about a selvage quilt? Anything you want, she said. So I played around with it, and made her this selvage tumbler quilt.  (Makes you want to give Karen a template, doesn't it?!!!)

Karen has written a fabulous new quilting book based on her fascination with scraps, specifically the selvage edge that the rest of the quilting world tends to throw away!!  But not Karen....no way!  You've just got to get a copy of Karen's book so that you can drool over her quilts (you might want to have the pages laminated :) and even create some of your own!!  (book links go to Amazon.)

Karen has a really cool blog, too!  (This Quilty Girl is busy!)
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                 Some Get Finished

As I look around at my assorted unfinished projects, a new thought brings clarity as to why these projects are still undone.  There is no “need” for them yet.

Basically I get my creative charge early on in the quiltmaking process.  I love to make a few blocks and see how the colors, pattern, and fabrics play together.  The farther along I go with the quilt, the more my interest lags.  I know that doesn’t say much for my attention span—seems I’m into the cheap thrill!!

Lately though I’ve stopped beating myself up for having this apparent finishing defect.  What I’ve realized is that a neatly folded quilt top is packed with potential—just waiting for God to show me a need.  Once the need shows up, my Quilty Girl spirit jumps into high gear!  When God wants to warm a tender soul with a quilt, He only needs to lay the request on my heart and finishing that quilt becomes sheer bliss for me!

The next time you look at your unfinished quilts, I hope that you will smile and trust God to help you finish them at just the right time, for just the right person.  Please trust that all of this will fit together perfectly.

What a joy to be able to play a teeny-tiny part in God’s grand story of love.

May your day be blessed.
Pam



I pray that out of his glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.                                Ephesians 3:16-19