Your thoughts on an idea  

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Of course, you're right. It does come to that sort of efficiency.
Think I can imagine how you want to do it now, please show us some samples when you can.

Olive...
Let's escape the...
Olive...
Let's escape the limited canvas of a pillow and wrap ourselves into a warm cozy blanket. I personally would LOVE a warm modernest abstract snuggle-up into blanket. Emphasis on blanket...no measley throws. Qualities of a qulit would be nice, and seems like a possible creative outlet for you.

I'd be happy to make you one...
complete with your own design/color/fabric preferences.
And I think of pillows as only a starting point. Minimal fabric requirement, universally liked by pretty much everyone and quick to make. If the business idea gets traction then on to other goodness!
One thing I find is the case in my own home is that I tend to have few soft furnishings. Mostly because I hate what's out there style wise, quality wise and price wise. So I create a lot of my own things. If I do it for myself, why not for others? So if thing works out then more things than pillow will fly off my sewing table!
If you would really like a blanket let me know and we can take that idea off forum!

Excellent! Lets see what you...
Excellent! Lets see what you develop with the pillows. Could expand upon that.

I've looked in on
a couple of the 1/2-hour quilt-making shows on educational TV. Some of those gals really have it down ! Straight-edges, gridded cutting mats, and pizza-pie rotary knives, all of which contribute to accuracy and repeatability -- essential for fitting dozens of identical triangles and squares together, I suppose. Impressive . . .

Absolutely!
I've got a bunch of those tools already at my disposal as I've done a fair bit of upholstering and general home decor sewing in my day.
I personally despise quilts. Too homespun for me. But then along came a group called Gee's Bend and I began to see that quilting could be modernist. These women make quilts that sell for thousands of daollars! I don't want to make quilts but I really love their aesthetic.
So Woof, stay tuned I'll post some pix once I've done up a few offerings. My first efforts are going to be for my own home and will utilize colors similar to those used on Nelson clocks, just to give you an idea of what to expect.
I've also been noodling on additional inspirational points since we started this discussion. I'm thinking Josef and Annie Albers, George Nelson's infamous clocks, Mark Rothko and other colorfield artists, Japanese obi sashes, and weirdly highways and overpasses....I'm probably a bit out there on that last one...
http://www.quiltsofgeesbend.com/index.shtml

Very nice link Olive! Folk m...
Very nice link Olive! Folk/Native meets Modern...beautifully done. My fav is the first. Not exactly what I had in mind, but I'm now reconsidering possibilities. Highways and overpasses...weridly...not at all. They have a vibrancy all their own.

Olive
There's a whole movement of "art quilters" inspired by women like those of Gee's Bend. It goes back maybe 20 years...? I was part of it in the 90s though I didn't do too many abstract quilts. Thousands of dollars per quilt is on the low end of what some of these artists get. Check out the work of Nancy Crow. I was acquainted with her back when I was into that stuff and I admire her and her work a lot.
The link below is to Google images of Nancy Crow's work and I think other peoples' pieces that are similar. She used to do a lot of classes and workshops (maybe still does).
Here's one in that vein on Etsy right now, 21x28 inches, with a price tag of $150 which I think is very low considering the time she must have spent on it. (Not that I think time spent determines the value of a piece---far from it.)
If you're considering piecing pillows, think about doing a big piece of fabric first and then cutting it up into squares for pillows. You'd have to work out the piecing with this in mind but it would save time in the end, I think.
Uneven "log cabin" piecing is a quick way to get an interesting look. I would look at what colors other people are using and then do something different (heh). Just to make it original, i mean.
http://www.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=nancy+crow&oe=UTF-8&...

Just putting myself in the...
Just putting myself in the position of one of Olives customers what would really get me in would be a bed cover or hanging that is just a heavily stitched line drawing on one piece of fabric of a close up of some good architecture, maybe the foyers of Lake Shore Drive, something like that, maybe even contour maps or botanical art done with piping, in really weighty fabric.
Draw it out in chalk and thread the machine...I have to say I admire anyone who can even thread a sewing machine, I'm fairly handy but anytime I've tried to use one its just a disaster.

As lovely as that sounds, Heath
you're talking hours and hours and hours of work on that one. Just can't go there...