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 am very new to this site but I absolutly love it. Everyone seems so nice and open hearted. I have not started to really quilt as of yet but I will be starting shortly. When I was 13 (16 years ago, I am almost 30 now ) I decided I was going to hand sew fabric together for a quilt for my niece who at the time was 5. I did and to this day she sleeps with it every night, falling apart and the batting all at one end of it LOL. She is expecting her first child in October and she is calling me everyday for a handmade quilt for her baby. I can't say no. I can not think of a gift for her or the baby that would be more from the heart and soul as that. But I want to make my first real quilt right! And the second quilt I want to be an upgrade for my niece. My love and admiration for quilting came before that. From the time I was 2 I slept with a quilt from my great grandmother that was hand quilted and I wouldn't sleep without it. Even after coming home from the hospital after being in acoma for 3 weeks I was carrying that quilt in behind me because my mother faught the hospital on not letting " personal items" in ICU. I slept with that quilt until it was too raggy to keep in one piece. Anyway I think the love of quilting did come from my roots. My mothers family made quilts from only scraps and what ever they had availible and the quilts were either made heavy or light depending on the need. I have always admired them and even though I don't sew regularly or knit I am so motivated to finally dive in and learn this that I can't wait.

I would go with #2 but I think you can look around more. I don’t understand why 5 is getting chosen as the white will class with your cabinets. i think people are reacting to the fact that it isn’t busy. do as Diana says.Bring a sample of your door plus a sample of the wood from your island if you can. Go with an open mind. Renovating as a couple is hard. Your DH does derive I put. The fact that you have two tones in your kitchen dies my mean there is a lot going on. You can handle a granite with movement. Notice I said movement. It doesn’t have to be loud and super busy. That can be a good compromise between the two of you. I think you have done very well with your choices and no need to excuse the fact that you didn’t hire a designer. Many of us here have never hired a designer to help with a kitchen renovation. When you visit the yard go with an open mind but explain that you were looking for granite in the brown and cream families. You might find something unexpected that you both love.

"Regardless, it will not do well as a houseplant and needs to be outdoors." Well, that's just not true!! A great many people grow gardenias as houseplants all year round. As long as you can meet their humidity and light requirements, they grow perfectly well as houseplants. Dozens of websites will discuss care instructions for gardenia houseplants in depth. They are somewhat more picky than many houseplants but then again they are equally picky about growing outdoors as well. Not the easiest plant to grow and especially in the tree form.