I stumbled upon the only book so far written by Karen Griska, in a coincidental manner. You see, she calls herself “Quilter’s Muse” and that term popped up in a Google Alert I had set for my official business name that I pay to keep, first registered in New Hampshire in 2002:  “Quilter’s Muse Publications.” In fact, when I looked at her blogsite, it appeared that her choice of quiltersmuse.blogspot was a little too close for comfort, too. I didn’t like it. Would you? I had discussed this with Karen when the situation was first discovered, so this is no news to her.
The other day, we were about to pass Keepsake Quilting, and I asked Jim to stop in. I found Karen’s book and had to add it to my library, even though twenty bucks seemed like a lot of money for such a thin book. An artist cannot have too many muses, any more than a kid cannot have too much candy corn at Halloween.

First, I turned to the back cover where I saw a photo of Mark Lipinski and his dog, adorned with one of Karen’s strip creations. I noticed throughout the book that when a little bit of fabric is showing, as well as the selvage, the quilt becomes more exciting.

I have a friend to whom I’ve been sending all of my selvages, for years. The idea of making a quilt with them is not new. Like almost every idea for quilting, it is a recycled one, just like the use of my business name.

There is a “Quilter’s Muse” (Don Johnson) who sells piano CDs at , and there is a person who calls herself, “quiltmuse,” who writes quilt related poetry, and has done so for some time now.

In choosing that name, Karen has a lot to do to fill the shoes of those who have gone before. The quilts in her book do remind one of cigar band quilts, as she said, though a little less intensely colorful (those were usually a bright, ochre color).

It’s always fun to see what others are doing, and we all fill a niche in the marketplace. Now that Karen is off the ground, we hope that she will soar to new levels of success and be the best that she can be.

Patricia Cummings,

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