Quilted Pillows

I have a couple ikea pillows covers on my couch that just about everyone I know owns:

Ikea Hedda Cushion Cover 20"

I didn't realize how popular they are until I started seeing them in TV shows and in my friends photos. I still like them a lot... it's just been a couple of years now and I wanted something new and -more importantly- something I made.

I've been eyeing the mod mosaic style for a while now (Tutorial at Oh, Fransson!) and wanted create something with lots of my favorite fabrics all in one spot.  Then as I went to start it.. I got sidetracked (as usual) and remembered I wanted to try some HST.

I randomly started chopping up squares with my 4 1/2" ruler and 3 shades of gray Kona and started sewing them into HST.  As soon as i had enough.. I played around with the layout until I was happy:

I was aiming for a 21" block for my 20" pillow insert. I came up a bit short so I added a gray border.

It was a very happy accident.

Seams all pressed open:

After I spent all night on that... I spent the next day (finally) on my mod mosaic.   I just grabbed stuff at random and starting putting them together.  Here's some pics as I went:

I added some Warm and White batting and muslin on the back and quilted them with meandering free-motion.  I've been practicing getting my curves more rounded and less jerky.  I used Kona Coal on the back of both with white threading.. so it was a little risky but I gave it a shot!

I was really happy with how my quilting came out!  I trimmed them both to 20.5" and added an invisible zipper to the bottom.

I love them!

One just disappeared out of this city on a certain carry-on bag...

so I've added another pillow to my future to-do list.  :)