Pillows

Pillow Palooza

Published on October 4, 2012October 8, 2012 by Our Humble Abode24 Comments

Up until yesterday, we still had very summery weather. I’m a little late, but I’ve started decorating for fall. Usually I don’t go all out on seasonal decorating, but I like to switch up a few things. I started with new fall colored pillows for the couch. Thus, pillow palooza was born.

Red doesn’t often make an appearance in our house. However, I can’t get enough coral lately. Spurred by a towel I bought for the bathroom, I figured dark coral and gray could replace red nicely.

I happened to have half a yard of light gray duck cloth in my stash, so I cut it to an 18 inch square piece. Wanting a simple design, I taped off two-inch wide random stripes. Then I mixed up a batch of dark coral using apple red, orange, and a dose of pale pink. Painting went quickly, covering in one coat.

Peeling off the tape is such a fun moment. A few areas of bleed through, but nothing terrible. Definitely fun color.

For something even more fall-ish, I had the idea to add a leaf design to a pillow. Preferably, I would have used fabric for the leaves, but I had my heart set on metallic. Sadly, our little fabric stores don’t carry much in the good-looking metallic department. Again, I turned to craft paint, this time in a metallic copper finish. Freehand leaves appear to fall and settle at the bottom.

Later, I went back and added a few metallic gold leaves, too. Yellow is a great fall color, so I kept the fun Target pillow.

For the other side of the couch, I started dip dyed a piece of natural colored canvas in a tangerine dye bath. Just a simple dip and wiggling to get an ombre-ish pillow.

To incorporate orange, yellow, and gray to temper the bright colors, I had my heart set on a triangle pattern pillow. I cut a 7 inch equilateral triangle template from card stock, then traced it to scrap fabric left over from other projects.

Pinning the pieces together to create a line of triangles.

After completing the strips, I sewed them to each other. Randomly placed colors made a fun mix.

Of course the yellow arrow pillow fit in, so it’s still around.

So that’s our fall-ified couch. Nothing ground breaking, but I’m happy with a change. Both the pillows and weather.

What have you been changing up? New pillows? A fall mantle? How do you incorporate fall colors in your home?

Let’s Tango

Published on July 31, 2012October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode4 Comments

Thank you all so much for your support and encouragement yesterday! I’m so happy you like the pillows. I hope to add more as soon as possible in a variety of colors, so stay tuned. Do you remember when I made new pillows for our outdoor bench? And at that point I mentioned I wanted to add tangerine pillows. While sewing the arrow pillows, I kept my sewing machine out to sew a few orange pillow covers.

I bought the fabric at Joann’s about a month ago, not knowing exactly what I wanted to make.

For the back side, I made an envelope closure back in a bright tangerine coordinating fabric.

I’m a big fan of mixing floral and geometric, and I’m really liking the color combo.

These covers are quilting weight cotton, but if they start getting damaged, I can bring them inside.

So that’s the latest little project. Progress has been slow elsewhere because the roof is taking up so much time and energy. Hopefully I can knock out a project or two to share soon.

This Just In

Published on July 30, 2012October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode13 Comments

Ever since I unveiled my arrow stenciled pillow cover, I’ve gotten requests to add something like it to the shop.

Over the weekend, I gave you a peek at the four newest members of our Etsy shop.

Today, I’m proud to reveal a new line of pillow covers for your abode. Meet the new crew, currently available in teal, gray, mustard, and olive.

Let’s get to know them better, shall we? Each pillow is made from a linen/cotton blend for the luxurious linen look with the ease of cotton.

At 18 inches square, these pillows are the perfect size for a chair, couch, or bed. And finding pillow inserts is easy because this is a standard size.

All designs are hand stenciled, one small section at a time, making each pillow unique. Of course, that also means there are small imperfections or areas where the paint seeped under, but that all adds to the charm of a hand made item.

Envelope closures at the back make stuffing and removing the insert easy when it’s time for a wash. Speaking of washing, linen is actually easy to care for. Just turn the pillow cover inside out. Machine wash on a cool, gentle setting with like colors. Dry on low setting. Iron if necessary, keeping cover inside out.

Currently, we have four colors ready for purchase, as well as two different sized prints. Choose the small print for a patterned look, or the large print for a bolder, graphic look. Like what you see? Head over to get one for yourself before we sell out. Like the idea, but need something a little different? Send an email to ourhumbleabowed@gmail.com with your color, size, and pattern size preference and we’ll discuss the possibilities.

So, what do you think of the new additions? Depending on how these are received, I’m excited to add a few more options to the shop and take on custom requests. What color(s) would you like to see? Perhaps a different size? Or a different material? Share your thoughts to help expand this line, please!

Blue Bench Pillows

Published on July 18, 2012October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode4 Comments

Before heading out to Minnesota, I made a stop at Joann’s just to see if there was anything I should know about. Luckily, our Joann is liquidating their stock because they’re moving stores soon. So, I stocked up. Because hoarding fabric is fine, but hoarding cheap fabric is even better, right? I got a few quilting weight fabrics, a mustard yellow vinyl, a few zippers, and a fun blue geometric print.

Because the blue was the heaviest, I decided to use it for outdoor pillows. Ten or so minutes later, following this method, I had two new pillows for our bench.

Along with the blue, I bought a tangerine floral print, but I’m concerned about using the quilting fabric outside. The original pillows are still there.