Quilted Pillows - David Owen Hastings

I made these quilted pillows for our new home, and had fun exploring variations on a color theme in the process.

Fat quarters of fabric in grey and rust tones

Square in a square quilt blocks in rust and grey

Quilted pillows in grey, rust, and white

Detail of quilted pillow in grey and rust

Quilted pillow with modern flying geese blocks in grey and white

Ritual figurine from the late Jōmon period, found in Northern Honshu, Japan (Scala Archives) — Ritual figurine from the late Jomon period, found in Northern Honshu, Japan (Scala Archives)

Little guy, big inspiration

This little figure captured my attention. He is from the Jōmon period in Japan, probably 1000 BCE or earlier, made by a hunter-gatherer culture. Besides being a charming piece of sculpture, I loved the colors in his little clay body, and took my color inspiration that. Well, that and we had just gotten a new couch in the same rusty-orange color.

Square in a square, and going from there

Who doesn’t love a grid? Being a graphic designer, I sure do. So I took this basic square in a square block, and started experimenting with fabric combinations. First I tried framing lighter colors with the dark, and then I played with the opposite. It was interesting to see the subtle transparency effects started to emerge.

Subtle textures are my jam

When it comes to buying and using quilting fabric, I tend to gravitate towards things with subtle textures and very small patterns (if any). I like the surface of the fabric to be subtle in most cases, and let the colors and tones stand out. I especially loved the rusty prints that I found, as they fit in well with my overall color theme for these pillows.

Quilted pillows in rust, grey and white on a rust leather sofa

Quilted pillow with modern flying geese blocks in white and grey

Quilted pillow with modern flying geese design in grey and white

From squares to triangles, playing with geometry

After making a couple of pillows using the square in a square block, I branched out and played with other basic geometric shapes. I made one pillow using flying geese blocks, but in a modern, non-standard way… mixing them up so they were flying in different directions. I also made a pillow with an ombre effect plus some 60-degree triangle blocks. Working on these small projects was fun and satisfying, and now our new sofa has some great pillows!