Finchlover, the only reason for not quilting in the ditch is that you won't be able to see your quilting stitches. If you're quilting with a machine it doesn't matter because they will all be the same size anyway. If you quilt by hand and have beautiful, neat, even, tiny quilting stitches, you wouldn't do them justice by hiding them in the ditch. You'd want to show them off by stitching a fancy pattern on the face of the quilt. I've been quilting for about 36 years, not sure how many I've made during that time, maybe 35 or 40. Some larger some smaller, some machine pieced and hand quilted, some all handmade. Made a few embroidered tops and hand quilted. I've only made one quilt that was machine quilted and I did quilt in the ditch. I made it about 20 years ago and I'm still using it. Made a few whole cloth quilts, small ones for babies, pink, yellow, blue, lavender, that had tons of quilting on them. I use a lap hoop to do the quilting and generally hand piece the tops. Haven't done an applique top in a long time, but I've been thinking about a cute butterfly pattern I saw recently on e-Bay I'd like to try. I confess I have several tops that need to be quilted, but since I use a lap hoop, I really do need cold weather to do them. My current project is a yo-yo quilt, which isn't really a quilt at all, but it takes a real long time to make and uses a lot of different fabrics and requires a lot of hand sewing. I just finished cutting out 4000 2" squares for a postage stamp quilt and I have a sack of 2" x 45" strips to piece together and cut out a four pointed star quilt top. Lastly, I'm still in the gathering stage of a silk quilt using men's silk neck ties. I have collected about 50 ties, taken out the stitching and facings and have the fabric neatly waiting until I have enough to start piecing. I figure for a nice sized quilt that's suitable for display I'll need about 250 ties. Using all the silk, I'll stabilize it with fusable interfacing, join the bits into thirty 12" squares, Then sew the squares together. The best part of the silk crazy quilt is the embroidery on each seam embellishing it and giving it character and charm. I made a small one (45" X 56")for my mom years ago and it was so much fun. If you find that you love quilting, you'll be hooked for life. In 1976 I was in the Navy and had a mid watch at the women's barracks. When I walked into the watch office the woman on duty was piecing a postage stamp quilt. She had a grocery sack full of tiny squares and several completed blocks. It hit me like a cold shower. When I got off watch the next morning I went home and cut up a bunch of old clothes, some tablecloths, several of my husband's shirts (he was overseas at the time) and I started quilting that day. Since then I've never lost the bug. I agree with bellaroma you should take a beginners class. It's better than teaching yourself and making all the mistakes that will cost you time and money and could ruin your drive to continue quilting. Learn the basics first. Cheryl P.S. I just scored a major stash of quilting fabrics at an estate sale. I got about 50 yards of various cotton quilting fabrics for $6. The lady was a quilter and had her stash separated into color groups, so I just scooped them out of her handy bins and into my shopping sack. Lord rest her dear soul, she had the biggest stash I've ever seen so I guess she was the winner.

I know that sick feeling all too well!! Eight weeks ago I picked a wood and color that I loved. It's a warm wood tone on beech with rustic knots. It's been so many weeks since I've since it that I began panicing all this week as the cabinets were scheduled to arrive. I was freaking out thinking I had ordered cabinets so rustic that I would need to hang antlers in the kitchen just to 'carry on the theme'!! :-) I've seriously lost sleep over this! Well, they arrived this afternoon and all my fears are gone - - they are stunning! With just the right amount of rustic to look Old World and the warm wood tones are gorgeous. I, too, have a creamy colored island and it's beautiful. Let's just hope it all comes together as pretty in real life as it is in my head! :-) I had visions of a creamy white kitchen as well, but when it didn't go with anything else in my house, I knew I had to lose the dream. But pictures of creamy kitchens will always make my heart beat quicker!! I hope you grow to LOVE your new kitchen - cherry wood and all! I look forward to seeing pictures!

That quilt is amazing, the angled/turning/depth perspective must have been so hard to translate into blocks of fabric, my gosh! I am completely impressed. And the butterflies add such a shot of color and whimsy and interest, WOW! I wish I could go to Houston Quilt Market. I went once, years ago, with the shop owner that I worked for, it was so fun to see all the new things available, fabrics and pattern, accessories and the quilts, just amazing. I remember- it was the year "Warm and Natural" debuted. lol Been awhile, huh?

They took a baby goat? Has the possibility of satanic worship/sacrifices been suggested? It's possible. And it may 'just' be kids dabbling in something they really know nothing about--which is still dangerous and a bad sign. We have a rescue zoo in our area--they take in animals that have no place else to go. Old circus animals, abandoned pets/farm animals, animals that were confiscated because they were acquired illegally, etc. Some years back some teens broke in and killed a number of animals, did property damage, etc. I felt awful to hear that. These were not just animals for the public to enjoy, they were rescued animals who had no place else to go. Horrible. May I suggest you do what I did? Write the biggest donation to the zoo that you can afford. It won't right the wrong that's been done, but you'll feel better, and the zoo's management will know that there are those who truly appreciate their efforts. And it may help them repair and replace some of the damage that's been donel