Front Porch

My husband grew an amazing crop of pumpkins this year. We counted at least 55! I am LOVING our Autumn porch, but we "needed" a bigger welcome sign. 

Our porch is so pretty! I hope the pumpkins will last through Thanksgiving. 

Our succulents are overflowing their bucket!

Adventures with Cricut & Beyond

I just realized I haven;t shared any of my Cricut projects! My mother-in-law gave me a Cricut Explore Air 2 for my birthday and so far it's been really great!

My very first project was a t-shirt that is one of my favorite sayings for this crazy year we've had!

The rest of these photos are out of order, but I'll share anyway. I have been attempting to propagate succulents and have a section on our patio devoted to our "nursery." So naturally I needed to make a sign! 

I have also been experimenting with the stencil product from Cricut. There's definitely a learning curve, but I like the look of painted signs over vinyl stickers. 

A few more t-shirts. We tease my son all the time by asking "do you know you're still talking?" He now has two of these shirts "am I still talking?" and he loves them.  

My first attempts at vinyl on canvas turned out cute! 

Another wood sign, this time with a vinyl sticker instead of the stencil. 

This bookshelf shirt is my favorite and I would wear it everyday if I could! I drew the design in PhotoShop and I am so proud of how it turned out.

These flowers and hot air balloons are all free downloads from Love SVG.

I also made some canvas toiletries bags. The bags themselves are from Hobby Lobby and I think they were $1.29 each. Can't beat that!

Second attempt at a barn quilt painting with Cricut stencil. Better, but definitely not perfect! It makes me happy to see by my rulers and cutting area.

I also made some cute little wooden labels for my fabric baskets. 

Not Cricut related, but I have found myself in a lovely Summer habit of a afternoon iced latte. It's one of my very favorite times of the day. Speaking of... my espresso machine is truly one of the best purchases I have ever made. I love it so much. 

I also loved this month's American Patchwork & Quilting magazine. The magazine was great, it was also a wonderful idea to read it while floating in the pool on a hot afternoon. 

We went up to Shaver & Huntington Lakes for the last weekend before school (distance learning) started. It was so beautiful (and just before all of the California wildfires started and smoke overtook these beautiful blue skies). 

Last but definitely not least, if you are a quilter or a puzzle lover, Camille Roskelley's new puzzle is SO good and SOOOOOO cute! I loved working on it while listening to an audiobook. 

*Affiliate links... if you purchase a product using any my links, I earn a very small "commission." 

Board & Brush Sign Class

A few weeks ago, I took a sign making class at my local Board & Brush. It was so fun! We distressed, sanded, stained, assembled, painted, distressed (again), and waxed our signs. I loved it! Removing the stencil was so satisfying!

I made a "Barn Quilt Welcome Sign" and I LOVE it.  

And I did an add-on 12" sign, too! 

I had planned on putting this in my kid's bathroom, but I love it so much I want it somewhere where I will see it, too (I avoid my children's bathroom at all costs!!).  

There was a pretty good group of my friends who did the class together. I loved all of our projects!

All dry and ready to hang up! 

We hung it at the beginning of our hallway. We can see it from the kitchen, living room, dining room, and front door. That's how much I love it!

Tough Week + School Donations

This has been a very difficult week for me. My beloved cat, George, passed away on Tuesday. He's been my sidekick for over 16 years and our house seems very, very empty without him here. I didn't realize how much emotional support he gave me and losing him has been very painful. He's been my "therapy dog" in dealing with my illness. I miss him so, so much. Losing a pet is difficult enough, but processing that grief with my kids has been unbearable. Hopefully this will all get easier with time. 

Moving on to happier subjects, here is quilt #82. This is a baby sized B&W quilt for my children's school fundraiser. I had my son (age 8) layout the blocks, so he was the designer. I love B&W quilts for babies... such a fun contrast for their brand new eyes and a nice way to make a gender-neutral quilt. 

The binding and backing are both B&W tiny polka dots. The quilting is straight-line quilting on either side of the seams. 

My other child's class theme is "baseball." I made this wooden crate using vinyl lettering. We're not a baseball family, but I pictured this being good for home decor or storage for gloves/balls/cleats? 

I also painted a baseball-themed pumpkin. Hopefully all of these items will raise some much-needed funds for the classrooms. 

Wedding Sign & Other Crafts Lately

I made this sign as part of a gift for a friends’ daughter’s wedding. I used the same technique I used in this blog post (one of my most “pinned” posts ever!). It’s fairly easy, but a little time consuming. 

My mother’s group had a painting project for us last week, too. It was fun to paint with a bunch of friends and see how all of our paintings turned out similar, but different.  

Speaking of my mother’s group! I just realized I never shared any of the crafts I taught this year (I served at the Creative Activities Coordinator this year). These were two of our Spring projects... Sharpie Mugs (using oil based sharpies). I wouldn’t really recommend this project since the cups haven’t held up as well as I hoped they would, despite following instructions. 

And photo blocks. These are 2x4” boards, cut to photo size. Then we painted the edges with acrylic paint, modge-podged photos on them, and decorated with fabric/paper flowers and ribbon. They turned out very cute and the moms in the group seemed very happy with this craft. It helps that our kids are adorable!  ; ) 

Fall Leaves Painting Class

Our local painting studio had a “Fall Leaves” painting class. It was a 2 hour class with acrylic paints on canvas. I went with a handful of family and friends and some wine and we had fun (I’m in the back row, right about in the middle). 

Here’s my finished painting. 

Happy Fall, Y’all!  ; )

A little of this, a little of that...

It’s been a busy summer! Not busy sewing, but busy none-the-less!

The first picture is actually sewing! I made this pillow for my friend Patti. She helped housesit for us while we were on vacation, which is no easy favor since we live pretty far out in the country. She loves B&W and red, so I made her a little pillow. She’s a truly great friend to me. She always says yes when I ask for help and has even driven me 45 minutes (one way!) to my treatments and waited patiently while I am poked and prodded. Most visits take between 2-3 hours, plus travel time, so this is no small task! She’s also babysat my kids, picked us up from the airport, and countless other favors. She’s a rock star! I wish I had the energy to make her a whole quilt. 

If you’re curious about my MS and clinical trial story, you can read more here: https://www.youcaring.com/jodie-bissig-436264

Speaking of vacation, while we were away, I took some time to paint with watercolors. Here are a couple of my creations... 

 We camped for a couple of weeks, during which time I had my birthday. We went whale watching out of Santa Cruz. I painted this little whale on a thank you card for my dad (who was able to meet us for the boat ride) and step-mom.

My husband surprised me by extending our camping trip to include the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Sonoma County (my family lives in Santa Rosa). I LOVE hot air balloons and this event is very special since that is where my husband proposed to me a little over fifteen years ago. 

This balloon reminded me of a quilt with it’s cute star in the middle. I definitely have a hot air balloon quilt on my to-do list once I’m feeling a bit better. 

Catching Up...

I didn’t really intend to stop blogging, but looking back, it’s been 4 months! 

A lot has been going on. Lots of medical stuff, which you can read about here: https://www.youcaring.com/jodie-bissig-436264  As much as I don’t want to admit it, MS has really slowed me down. I’m trying to keep up with my art projects, because it makes me feel like me. 

We spent few weekends in the foothills during Spring at my husband’s family’s cabin near Mariposa.

It was a very good year for wildflowers (and my favorite barn in the background, it was the star of my first pastel painting). 

Lots of pretty sunsets set against the oak trees.

I worked on some knitting by the creek. I was trying to make a hat. First attempt was a bust, but second try worked out well! 

I have a quilt that is done, just waiting for binding (hopefully this week). 

And... I took a watercolor painting class and came home with a pretty picture.

Learning Pastels

I took an pastels art class at my local art center. It was taught by LaVone Sterling, who is an award winning artist. I've tried pastels in the past but never really gotten the hang of how to use them. 

This is a photo of LaVone's pastels pallet. Isn't it beautiful? I love COLOR! 

We started with a photograph (I chose one that I took my husband's family cabin) and did a pencil sketch.

After the sketch, we used watercolor underpainting to provide a background to build on. 

Then we started at the top and worked our way down, adding layers of pastels to be blended together.

LaVone showed us how to use stryofoam packing peanuts to blend the pastels, which worked so well! I was amazing! We also used plain white bread - like Wonderbread! - to blend and remove color when we had added too much. 

I tried to take lots of photos along the way to document the process. I was amazed at how quickly it went from scribbles of color to looking like real artwork. This is with the trees and sky blended, but still just the watercolor background on the barn.

 And as much as I tried to take photos, then I got excited working on the barn and grass and didn't take any more photos until the end. 

Here are the other pieces made by the rest of the class. I was so impressed! 

And here's my finished piece. I hope it doesn't sound too braggy, but I am SO happy with how it turned out. I keep looking at it, amazed that I made it! 

LaVone is planning to come back for a second class in the fall and I hope I can attend. She was a great teacher and I loved learning all of her tricks. I can't wait to try another one!