Little Star Quilts: Happy New Years 2011 and UFO Challenge

Hope you all have had a wonderful holiday season this year and a blessed time with family and friends. I know we have all had a good time here. Our daughter and her husband work for the Marriott Corp. so we decided to spend New Years Eve at one of the local hotels. We had a great time swimming in the indoor pool and using the hot tub. Our girls got a room as well and invited some friends to join us. We had a good time and then had the worst nights sleep ever. LOL The beds were hard and none of us slept very well. I for one fell asleep quickly and then woke up in a very short time to the laughing and talk of the people in the next room. That went on for hours and I could not get back to sleep. I finally went to sleep about 6 or 6:30 that morning. We slept until about 10, and then we got up. The girls got up about the same time and came to make sure we were up. They even brought me a second cup of coffee. A very nice gesture since we only had two cups in our little packet they leave in the rooms. Then off we all went to have a nice breakfast at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Then we came home and just spent the day watching TV and hanging out with each other. I took naps off and on through out the day. We had out regular New Years black eyed peas and cornbread with Ham for dinner. The only thing we missed was having some cabbage. That is part of our tradition, but we forgot to get any. Needless to say we took a nice hot bath and went to bed early.
Today I got up very late, because I finally got to sleep last night and I really crashed. We are watching Christmas movies today and just enjoying each other. I have spent the last couple of hours reading and catching up on the blogs I follow. So now for my quilting over the last few weeks. I did not get to finish mothers quilted sweat shirt jacket, however I did get it almost done. I have the front two pieces and the sleeves quilted and ready to put back together. I just need to do the back this week and it will be put back together and given to her to enjoy for the winter. I would have gotten it made probably if I had not spent the afternoon and evening in the ER with my dad two days before Christmas. He got out Christmas day, and then on Tue. we ended up back in the Er with what seemed to me like heart attack symptoms. They ended up sending him home after watching him for a few hours.
Hubby's boss requested I make her a baby blanket to take to her niece in Puerta Rico. Then after I got the stuff to make it she decided she would like the name embroidered on it. I had a horrible time working on the fabric she requested. I have used minke on other quilts but only small squares, never as a backing. That stuff is the slickest slippery stuff I have ever used.
I have to say you may have noticed I said blanket and not quilt. She didn't want any batting, just backing and fabric. I used my machine to quilt it, even without batting. It did not turn out looking like I would have wanted but she is happy with it and that is what counts. I will turn down that kind of jobs in the future. I spent time on it that I needed to spend on the quilt I am working on. I did need the money I made, even though it was not much. So I guess I won't say I won't do it again. I would, if the time was right and I was asked.
Okay back to the blogs I read and follow. I am sad that many of them have either stopped blogging or just disappeared from their blogs. I found that many have not written since Sept., June, or later. I wonder if I can unfollow them, just to clean up my list.
Next for the new year is the UFO Challenge I told you about in Dec. I am trying to figure out how to add my list to the side bar of my blog for the year. Until then I am posting it here;
1 Pink Hearts

2 Purple dorm quilt

3 Pink and Brown BOM

4 Purple Birthday exchange

5 Christmas Exchange Blocks

6 Sun Bonnet Sue and Overall Bill Exchange

7 Purple Pansies BOM

8 Blue Bonnet BOM

9 Pink Christmas

10 Blue Strawberries
The lovely lady doing the challenge has already posted the number for this month and it is 3. So for this month I will be working on the pink and brown BOM quilt that I started several years ago. I actually bought two blocks each month, because the blocks are pretty small, and I wanted it to be a good sized quilt. I have about 10 of them made, now and I will need to get some fabric for sashing and backing. This will be fun and challenging, but a good way to commit to getting some of my UFO's completed and maybe even keep me from starting any new ones until there is more room in my sewing room. After all stash busting is my goal.
Next week we start making some dents in our lovely scraps.
Here are some photos too. This is what I have been doing, not only on my holiday, but also this month.