Who Influenced Whom?

Who influenced whom? The question has been raised and I feel I must clarify things a bit. Yes, it's true, I did make one little zippered bag out of selvages a couple of years ago for a guild Christmas gift exchange, but I was only experimenting when I made that! Then a few months ago I did make a teeny selvage key chain, but I don't really count that...it was so small and it only took a few minutes to make! There was no addiction and I could walk away from selvages at any time. Apparently since then, selvage use has hazed my memory and things aren't very clear (obviously selvage use is more potent than I first thought). Taking my selvage clouded mind into consideration, I think Anya and I may have been together at the Quilters' Heritage Celebration in Lancaster, PA a few years ago when we saw that first selvage quilt on display and I am pretty sure that quilt was made by Karen Griska herself, the woman who wrote the book on selvages! I believe that it was shortly after that when we discovered Karen's blog, Selvage Blog. I don't remember which one of us found Karen's blog first, but we have since had many discussions about the wonderful projects featured on her blog and talked about making selvage projects of our own. Now, here is the difference between Anya and myself...I tend to talk about projects where Anya actually makes them! If you read the Selvage Blog you will notice that several of Anya's beautiful selvage projects have been featured over the past few weeks. Not only that, but she has also made this adorable selvage bag to take along to the quilt show in Lancaster. Now I ask you, how could I also go along on the same trip and not have a selvage bag of my own to carry my purchases in? It's pretty obvious to me that my friend, Anya, is the one doing the influencing here!

All kidding and teasing aside, do be sure to check out Karen Griska's website and blog. There are amazing selvage projects made by a variety of quilters featured on Karen's blog almost daily. Karen's webpage also has tips for cutting and sewing with selvages as well as patterns. You can also find more detailed instructions and patterns in her book, Quilts from the Selvage Edge.