Valentine's Day has come and gone

It's amazing to me that every year Valentine's Day comes and goes with very little hoopla around here. That's fine with me, it all feels a little forced and kinda awkward! Bah-humbug. Tee hee.

Nonetheless I did my part (I usually don't) and brought out a small wall-hanging my mom made a few years ago and I made this silly little mobile which stood in as a chandelier over a meal of crepes (je t'aime Montreal).

Although I've been sewing a little bit this week it hasn't resulted in much that was picture worthy. And I still find it challenging to take a good photograph at night.

I made another pillow the other night. It matches my first pillow in colour palette and is similar in size. It's a funny mix of things: muslin, vintage fabric from the 70s, ikea stripe, some scraps from Josh's grandmother, and a covered button with some leftovers. I'm happy with it's sorta scrappy result. I even like the look my little haphazard birds -- when I look closely at the machine applique it looks not too bad, which felt like a gamble at the time, am I going to ruin this nice pillow with some terrible applique??

I would quote a source for this pillow but I think it's truly an amalgamation of all the bird pillows out there in blogland. I love them all ... so thanks y'all for the inspiration.

Other than pillows I've been working on another loose-fitting jacket-like thing for my mom. It's a Butterick pattern made with some polyester I had kicking around. I'm using it mostly as a muslin this time around to see what the fit will be like and whether my mom likes the shape. The sleeves are wide and the shape is quite box-y so I'll have to see what it looks like on before I go ahead and cut out some nicer material.

The pattern requires a fair bit of topstitching and that actually went quite well. The results are nice so far. For right now progress is stalled however... no more black thread. Heheh.