A New Quilt Top and an Old Cardigan

My first project of the new year is well underway- in fact, it's already a quilt top.  In starting this quilt, I decided I wanted simple patchwork with a riot of color.  With this in mind, I pulled together a stack of favorites, old and new (no low-volume prints) and settled on the simple half square triangle.

There's a certain pleasure in the whole quilt-making process.  The tranquil task of sewing small pieces of fabric into blocks under the needle of a machine.  Pressing these blocks into smooth squares under a hot iron.  Watching your fabric selections and blocks manifest themselves into the vision that started the whole process. And finally, that moment after the entire top is pressed, when you hang it up or lay it on the floor, step back and just take in the whole thing. 

It's exactly what I envisioned and I'm very happy with it.

I've started the back, and I'm none too pleased with it.  I decided to use leftover hst's with some yardage of Paper Snowflake from Meadow Sweet.  Not content to just sew the hst's up into a couple of rows and frame them, I decided on a scattered effect.  This led to the (perceived) need for more hst's to be made.  Which then led to quilt maths to decide how to cut the low volume yardage for maximum efficiency given the "random" hst layout.  Which led to my pulling out this old project (from 2011!) to give my head a break. 

Here is the Maple Street Cardigan, fresh out of it's holding place in a bag of scraps (I did pick off the threads and fluff before photographing it):

Thank goodness I noted where I left left off when I put it down.  It's been over a year-and-a-half since I've worked on this so I'm a little concerned about gauge.  The thought of frogging and starting over, complete with gauge swatching, entered my mind for a teeny moment, but I quashed it.  It'll block out, right?!

Now I've just got to remember where I put the rest of the yarn during the big move.

The other needles

     I'm throwing another project into the mix... this time a non-sewing project.  I'm picking up the knitting needles after a year or so of leaving off unfinished knitting projects.  I basically stopped knitting when I stopped working because I stopped riding the train, which is where I did my knitting.  I also blame sewing and quilting. 

     It's out with the old, in with the new (knitting projects, that is).  I decided not to pick up where I left off on the three sweaters I had going.  Instead, I cast-on for the Maple Street Cardigan from the Fall 2009 edition of Interweave Knits.  Although I love it in lavendar, I decided to knit it up in the Dark Green colorway of this yarn.  Dark green isn't really an accurate description of the yarn- it's more of a teal color.

     I hope I can actually finish this sweater.  I have only completed two knitting projects.  The first was a scarf I made for Tonio, from a cheap acrylic yarn which has pilled most horribly.  The other was this  cute little poncho for Martina in a nice silk and wool hand-dyed yarn.

My mother shrank it in the wash on her last visit here.  Shrank it down to barbie doll size.  I've promised little momma to make her another.