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

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.


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!