Inching Along: Christmas Traditions

I know it's only July, but maybe it's all the amazing Christmas fabric in stores: I have Christmas on the brain.

And, with my primary project laid up in a hand work state (stitch removal, ugh), I have been craving some machine time. So, earlier this week, I busted out an old perennial to-do, Christmas Traditions. 

Christmas traditions has been an on-again off-again project for a while, because when I first bought the fabric, it required two skills I had absolutely no experience with: paper piecing, and applique. I had to learn those both as I went (on this project, and on others), and there's been the added difficulty that this is one of those fabled "quilts for myself" which means it gets put on hold whenever someone quilt-worthy announces a pregnancy.

But, the thing is still taking up TWO of my precious craft bins (I have a rule: I can only have as many projects going as I have craft bins, and I have 5 craft bins total), and this will be the...(checks old posts) THIRD year in a row I have been working on it. Plus, the skills are learned and the blocks are made up, so it's about time to enjoy the fruits of my labor; I'm making a concerted effort to get this thing assembled.

So, at the start of the month, Christmas Traditions looked like this:

And now, it looks like this:

So, I'm pretty happy! I still have another 2 layers of sashing to go, but this feels like real progress: plus, I'm past the part where all the points have to match up, so that's one less thing to stress about. And I am free to fantasize that maybe *this* christmas, I will finally have this quilt to snuggle under.

And as always, linking back to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.