More Strings

When I first learned to quilt, I made a few throw pillows.  A decade later, they're faded, worn, dingy.  I've been meaning to make new ones for a while, and they finally made it to the top of my to-do list.  Yay!

I have bookmarked so many neat block patterns I've wanted to try.  Now's my chance to try a few of them out.  The first pillow will consist of two string patterns: double diagonal and spiderweb.  These two will probably exhaust what's left of my scrappy strings.  I have been loving these project, but I need to do some non-scrappy projects!

String blocks are so messy when they're in progress.  Then lop off the edges and voila! these sharp little blocks appear.  So pretty.  The double diagonal piece is nearly done.

I'm not as far with the spiderweb blocks.  Just blue edges for now - I'm not sure what I wanted to do for the rest of the colors.  I waited until the other blocks were complete before filling out these, so I could gauge what colors I have left.  I'm hoping to wrap up the first pillow this weekend and start on a second one next week.

I thoroughly cleaned out my sewing machine a couple of weeks ago and it's running a bit better.  However, it still grinds more than it should.  It stitches beautifully, but the noise makes me nervous.  I'm hoping to finish up my next few projects before I face losing it for a few weeks while it gets serviced.