Hi Lois, What a wonderful job you did on this, so bright & cheery, a happy combination of those colors & batiks. What a great present & your GD is sure to be delighted, well done! I DO hope you'll come back w/ more pix after it's bound & quilted.

Davidrol Excellent question...what are we doing with all this money? New appliances, a better kitchen eating/hanging out area, and we really need more counter space...right now there is no place to land food from the stove and oven. Resell appeal is important - we will probably be moving within 5 years. I agree added counter/cabs it will make it look smaller - and I am continually balancing aesthetics vs. function. (If it were up to me I would have no upper cabinets only open shelves but DH would never go for that.) My KD is all about cabinets - I have already taken out a wall and added a peninsula where he wanted to add wall and cabinets leaving me without any in kitchen sitting/eating area. The KD insists this will look OK and you won't notice the off center...but I am not sure I will like it. I keep going back to decreasing depth of new counter to 20 inches. I know we lose the magic corner but honestly, those don't seem like they pack too much of a punch as far as storage - especially for pans which is what I need to store in that part of the kitchen. With counter cut back to 20 I can still put in two deep drawers under the new cab and get most of my pans in...also with a 20 inch counter (instead of 24) I think we could hang pans to the left of window #2 (faces street - not garden window) which I think would be out of reach with a 24 inch counter. Chana Goanna I love the idea of the soapstone sink but does soapstone come in a white color? Someone told me it is always dark.

Sharon, the quilt pattern was in the Winter 2014 edition of Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts. It was called Holiday Argyle, and the original was 54"x66.5". I added an extra row of blocks on all four sides to get the size she wanted. (Boy, would computer software like EQ have been helpful.) It ended up 74"x91.5" before washing. It would be great in "guy" colors.

I'm having fun in PS with all your samples/pictures but what a conundrum :o Do you like blue? On my screen I see blue in that beautiful leopard rug and of course the dusty French blue goes great with the wood you chose. Do you have blue elsewhere in the house? Looking at the sample laying on the rug, it's the bottom row, third from the left. Personally, I stay away from colors that tend to look dingy or dull so I would want to go bright or darker...darker stair cases are usually more dramatic (around here). I see a lot of these stair runners or carpeted stairs. My husband cuts (has them bound) and installs countless stair runners. Yesterday's job was supposed to a runner but the customer changed her mind and did a full coverage of her staircase. This is what he installed 130 yds of so it wasn't just the stairs (not the actual house). Good luck. Can't wait to see which color you choose.