Knitting and quilting

I started a new shawl.  The yoke sweater is on hold until the recipient tries the body and a sleeve, and I'm still working on the other sleeve but that's almost done.  So, a new project is in order.

The design is Frozen Skies by Alla Saenko, and it's a lot of garter plus some lovely lace, so a bit mindless and a bit interesting.

I'm using Machete Shoppe yarn, bought at Winterberries, a lovely new NJ yarn shop.  Colors are Winterberry and Santeria.  Size 5 needle.  The colors remind me of Neapolitan ice cream with strawberries, pistachio nuts and a bit of chocolate.

On the quilting front, I've assembled 3 blocks just because I need to see what this thing is going to look like.

Here's what I discovered while sewing the first one together:  there is a spot where way too many seams come together, and my sewing machine is not happy there.  Tried 2 blocks with much cursing.  With the 3rd block, I opened the seams instead of the usual turn to one side, and it worked much nicer.  Sometimes,  the Yarnarian just has to use some ingenuity.