Making the Mighty Columbia

I’ve been slowly adding to my  collection of pillows on PDX Pillows at Etsy, a project I’ve wanted to take on for a long time. It started when I was in SoCal and missing Portland. Now that I’m back I’m so grateful for all the things that make Portland and the Pacific Northwest my home, I want to share it all.

PDX PillowI started with the PDX Pillow, an idea that just popped into my head one day when I was working on another reverse appliqué project. I love it! The plaid, the denim, the PDX cut out– it makes me happy.

So the brain has been ticking away coming up with more ideas on pillows that could be made, so when my friend Jen at BettyCrockerAss offered up these castoffs from Columbia Sportswear I was all over it. There had to be something I could do with them. Repurposing a local company’s product seems like a perfect fit. But what to do?

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I’ve been intrigued by all that is possible with HST (half square triangles) lately and decided I’d give that a shot. So I cut up 100 2.5″ squares of the plaids and started sewing them together somewhat randomly.

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After sewing the squares, I cut them into triangles and arranged then rearranged until I came up with this diamond that I liked well enough. Add a little quilting, a backing and an invisible zipper and -bam!- another pillow cover to add to the shop. The longer it sits here, the more I think I need to make another. Maybe mixing up fabrics a bit more next time. Or integrating some of the vintage linens I was recently gifted.  I’m not sure which I’ll try out next. Let me know what you think–could I mix the plaids with linens? Stick with one or the other? How about Pendleton wool? I think I’d like to try that, too!

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The Mighty Columbia Pillow Cover, as well as a half dozen other styles, is available now on Etsy.

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