Finish It Up Friday meets Blogger's Quilt Festival

You are my sunshine . . .

My only sunshine . . .

You make me happy . . .

When skies are gray . . .

(nice of the weather to cooperate with gray skies!)

I love this quilt. It's big. It's bright. It's warm and cozy.

There's not much of a story here. I've always loved yellow and orange. I love citrus. I love daisies. I love sunflowers, yellow tulips, Lemonheads, orange slices, lemon meringue pie, and canaries (Tweetie bird especially!). That's it. I started collecting the fabric in the throes of a Seattle winter, so I suppose I was counteracting the gray skies.

See, I could break into song again: 

I've got sunshine, on a cloudy day . . . 

The official stats:

• Quilt Measurements: 82.5" X 102.5"

• Special Techniques used: string blocks (is that special?); lots of patience; backed in Minky 

• Quilted by…MOI! I FMQed big flowers in each block, then straight-lined down the white strips

• Best category: You pick: Favorite Two-color quilt, Favorite bed quilt or Viewer's Choice

Thanks for stopping by. Have fun at the festival - I know I will be!

I'm also crossing this one off the 4Q FAL list and the 100 Day Hustle. And I'm linking up with crazymomquilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Phew. I'm spent.

If you need me, I'll be joining in the Friday Night Sew-In with my Weekender bags and that zig zag quilt. I'm taking it nice and slow with my Weekender bags. As in, I'm waiting on zippers, I need some more interfacing (I thought I bought enough?), and I keep distracting myself with an idea for another one. Yeah. It's bad over here.

Make-A-List-Monday, er, Tuesday

I read somewhere that you shouldn't make excuses on your blog for not posting.

But it's my blog and I promise to make my excuses entertaining with true stories. Or at least slightly embellished ones because those are funnier, right?

Why Jennie (that's me) did not post yesterday:

1. I was recovering from Sunday. Sunday is a day of rest for other people. For moms, it is extra work. Add in there a 2.5 year old who is mostly potty trained, but still has to be rushed to the bathroom when he says he needs to go, and if you don't you have an accident on your hands in the MIDDLE OF CHURCH. God has a great sense of humor, and by some miracle his church pants didn't get wet. But his socks and shoes did, so he was barefoot the rest of the day at church. (Note: I did not embellish this story at all!). And then we came home and watched Veggie Tales and ate spaghetti and I took a billion pictures of my kids' feet for Father's day. See the photo about as proof of my insanity. Do you know how hard it is to get five children to a) look at the camera; b) smile; and c) have their feet in the right position? Yeah, that hard. But my man loved it and that's what counts.
2. I was buried under 6 yards of yellow minky. I was piecing the back for my yellow and orange string quilt. It's done and ready for quilting (as soon as I score some batting!).
3. I was worried that the curse words in my head would make it to the blog as I was piecing the back for my strawberry pinwheel quilt. I've come to a conclusion about pieced backs - they are like marathons. You don't enjoy the process (at least I know I wouldn't/didn't), but you sure are proud of yourself when it's all done. After you've had a chocolate milkshake and a long nap.

Three is good, right? Okay, my fourth excuse is that I ate all my Ben and Jerry's Half Baked and was working out an elaborate scheme to get more. Because going to the store is too complicated - it involves five children, 10 shoes (preferably matching ones) and keys that are lost.

I don't have much to show for what I did - how boring would it be to see six yards of yellow minky? If that's your thing, right on. But I'm not taking a picture for you - use your imagination!

I lied - pictureless blogs are so very boring. You're welcome.

Here you go: blob o' yellow minky. Don't I have mad photography skills? Try not to hate me. And I made it X-Large, just so you could see all that detail. I'll do a tutorial later on how to take a picture like this. Very complicated stuff.

And a teaser photo of that quilt back. It makes me happy. It d*#$ well better make me happy, because I think it took longer to make than the quilt top!

But here is my to-do list for the week:

• Baste and quilt that pink/orange Dream On quilt. 2 weeks left for the 2nd Quarter FAL.
• Baste (at least) and quilt (maybe) the blue/green Dream On quilt. It was also on my list for the 2nd Quarter FAL.

That's it. 

What's on your list for the week?