Progress is Progress

I've been working (subbing) more lately, plus the family schedule has temporarily exponentially increased in intensity for at least the next six weeks.  I really feel it when I look at the WIP sitting on my sewing table.

I did manage to get my Sew Sweetness swap in the mail on time ... with a last-minute rush to the Post office because I had it in the car ready to go, but for some reason Rhett decided to take the van to work on that one particular day.  I'll post more about that when I know my partner's gotten some fun squishy mail =)

I'm also working on my second swap ... The Triple Zip swap.  We all make a pouch and fill it with goodies to send to our partner.  This one is a blind swap, so I'm feeling a bit more anxiety.  Here's a sneak peak of what I have so far.

Finally, I'm {barely} managing to keep up with Melissa's Star Light Star Bright quilt along.  I love this pattern and am really looking forward to having a completed Christmas quilt from my Blitzen scraps.  Her design is so neat, her tutorials are very clear and she is super helpful.  This week we did all the HSTs (half-square triangles.)  For me I started with 18 paired squares for each of the nine blocks.  I changed the star in the middle, so I had a couple more.  A LOT of chain stitching (about 1-1/2 hours worth) and trimming (just over 2 hours) later, I have a total of 324 HSTs.  Here is a progress picture for this week.