Off the Wall Finishes

For the last couple of weeks I have been working on this little wall hanging to give to DH for his 74th birthday - today.  The design was created by Denise of Jusquiltin.  This picture was taken when I had pinned the sandwich together, ready for quilting with my DSM.

 I enlarged the above photo of the finished/quilted piece hoping that the quilting would show better (will take another picture this week when the sun is out).  Anyway I used the built in stitches on my machine to finish this piece: wavy lines going up from the tub to show the steam from the hot water, waves on the tub, a feather stitch on the duck, etc. 

I wanted the lip of the tub to look like stenciling, something I have never tried.

And here are the waves on the tub itself.  I made this wall hanging to hang on the door of DH's bathroom as he is a tub person and can spend hours reading in the tub.

My next project was this mug rug.  I received it in an exchange but even though it is well made it had not been quilted. If I were going to hang it on a wall it probably wouldn't have been a problem but I use mug rugs all of the time.  Thus I had to quilt it.  I stippled the bug background and then stitched around each of the dots on the bug's back.  Wavy lines and feather stitches were used on the stripes.  I also put a black dot in each of the hand appliqued dots, just to be sure that when this is washed everything stays together.  And now it is sitting beside my chair, waiting for my next cup of coffee.

 As I said, today is DH's birthday.  I took him out to eat and then we did some antiquing.  The only thing I saw that I wanted was this hand made horse that I thought would look great on our deck.  He is about 6' long and carries a real full sized saddle.  However DH didn't think I needed a $600 6' rocking horse so I had to leave it there

Here is DH showing off one of his other gifts, a Jeep t-shirt.  He loves his Jeep (it is the third one he has bought over the years).  And the logo is 1941 when Jeep started for WW II and when DH was born.  Cool that Jeep honors his birth year, right?  Anyway I got him the shirt, a Jeep folding chair, and a Jeep decal to put on his Jeep.  Doesn't he look like a happy man?

 

My other finish this week was this pair of socks.  I have really enjoyed knitting them as the colors are bright and so very random.  I wore them today because it was a little cooler than it has been but I doubt they will get a lot of use until next winter.

And this picture is for Wanda of Exuberant Color.  She has been an inspiration to me in the Christmas cactus department as I have never been able to keep one alive until recently.  But this is my 3 year old cactus, blooming like mad.  The 2 year old is healthy but no blooms are there.  And the 1 year old, in the kitchen, also is healthy but no blooms.  All my hanging plants went back out on the deck this week and these three will be going out tomorrow. I am really happy that Spring is finally here.  We are having warm weather and Spring rains, just what we need to keep everything green and alive.

 

I will be linking with Patchwork Times on Monday and Esther Aliu's blog on Wednesday.  Have a great week everybody.  Gari