{Sew} Modern Monday

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday.

I've been home from visiting family in California for almost a week now & we've had visitors nearly every day since. Not that I'm complaining, I love having people visit.

I have had some time to make a few things though. I made several sketchbooks. 2 are for a couple of my giveaway winners, the other 2 are going in with swaps that are being sent out tomorrow. I am loving these books and have the paper ready to bind for a few more books that should be ready by the end of the week.

I love the third one from the left. It is covered with vintage feed sack fabric that I found in an antique/thrift shop during the winter.

I prefer the graph paper (shown), but I also make sketchbooks with blank paper as well.

I also made some needle books to go with each of the sketchbooks. The vintage buttons are from my husband's grandmother's old button collection.

This weekend I also prepped some Sunkissed charm squares to be made into some Wrapped Candy Pincushions. Sadly, that's the end of my Sunkissed charms because my other pack is going to Mary, who was also a giveaway winner this week.

Thanks for stopping by. If you didn't come over here from Canoe Ridge Creations {Sew} Modern Monday be sure to head over there to see what everyone else has been working on this week.

Pincushion Tutorial for Fabric Tuesday

I am new to the virtual swapping world. I have only participated in a few so far, but I'm having a lot of fun creating for others and seeing what they come up with for me. What I've discovered is that my fellow swappers are very generous people. Not only do they send gorgeous items like this and this. But often times I'll find extra goodies in the package as well.

I've started sending handmade needlebooks along with the swap, but the other night I got a brilliant idea to make fun little candy shaped pincushions made from charm squares. I designed it all in my head while we were driving home from our roller skating adventure and the next morning I tried it out. Success!

So's here's a quick and easy tutorial for my Wrapped Candy Pincushion.

Choose your charm square. If you cut your own (5" x 5") be sure to pink two opposing sides for the candy wrapper look.

Turn square over so wrong side is up. Fold and press two sides approximately 1/4". I cut the pinking off those two sides because it's less messy and easier for me to work with, but it is not necessary.

Measure and mark a line across the width 1" from each pinked (non-folded) edge.

Cut a piece of embroidery floss so it is slightly longer than the width. Split the floss into two sets of 3 strands and sew and running stitch along both marked lines.

Make sure that one end of your running stitch comes out the bottom and the other end comes out the top so that the strings match up when you pull them tight to tie closed. Also, be sure that the top and bottom are stitched the same.

Pull one end tight and tie closed with a square knot. Clip excess thread. Cut another piece of embroidery floss and split this into two sets of 3 strands as well. Put one set aside for your next Wrapped Candy Pincushion.

Thread the other set through your needle and tie a knot in the end of this piece. From the inside of the "wrapper" bring your needle up where you tied your knot. Continue to overlap your pressed edges and stitch a running stitch until you have reached the other (width-wise) thread.

Stuff the middle with your favorite fiberfill.

Pull the other end of the "wrapper" tight and tie. Be sure to tie the other end of the lengthwise running stitch in when you tie off the "wrapper."

Make several and throw them in a small bowl for a colorful display.

*This pincushion is an original idea and creation of Sharon Tuckey. Please use for personal use only. Do not use any photos from my blog without permission.*

Go over Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story to see what other people have been working on this week.

{Sew} Modern Monday

I can't believe it's be TWO WEEKS since I last posted! Where does the time go? Really? I haven't a clue.

I've followed {Sew} Modern Monday over at Canoe Ridge Creations for several weeks now and I thought it would be fun to join in this week.

This week I finished two bee blocks...

House block for Rebecca- Fat Stash Bee

I had never made a house block before, but I skimmed over several house block tutorials and watched the group photo stream to see what my fellow hivers were posting. They came up with some amazing blocks so I knew I had some work to do. I started by finding a house that had nice simple shapes. Obviously, my house looks nothing like the one I chose, but it inspired some of my design. I love how you can see the reflections of the neighborhood trees in the windows. I thought the woman's silhouette would make the house a home.

While searching through my stash trying to find the right fabrics I decided that instead of a daytime block she needed a sunrise/sunset scene. I also found the leaf fabric and thought it would look fun to have the vines crawling up the outside of the house. And of course, a house isn't a home without flower beds a green lawn and a stone walkway to the front door. I originally didn't have the walkway, but something was missing so I some unstitching, cutting, and restitching and Voila! Much better. :)

Mod Mosaic block for Pam - MSQB

My first attempt at this block wasn't a complete failure, but I cut the pieces WAY too small and it took me as long to 6"x6" block as it did to make the full-size (12 1/2" square) above. Many of my fellow MSQBee'rs suggested planning the block out before sewing it up, but I decided to improv it. I wish the colors and the patterns were mixed a little differently, but I think it's a pretty good first (second?) try.

Back of mug rug for Jessica - Mug Rug Swap Adventure

This mug rug is headed to Australia! The rest of it is a surprise until Jessica receives it. One of her likes listed was fabrics from Sweetwater. Since I had just won 4 yards of the gorgeous Sunkissed I decided to use some for this swap. That's all I sharing on this for now. :)

And on a family note...

Here's my happy puppies after our walk to the mailbox today.

Look! There's a little bit of green grass!

4 Prizes and a Giveaway!

My luck has been amazing lately! Since moving back to Wyoming less than a month ago I have already found a new job, have found that the nearest town has a pool (I love to swim), and have won 4 online giveaways!

I would like to share what has been showing up in my mailbox and offer a giveaway of my own.

1) As I've mentioned before, I am a member of SwapBot which is a fun swapping website. I am a member of a group called Nuts For Sewing and they do a monthly Winner Take All drawing for fat quarters. Each person that wants to participate leaves a comment and at the end of the month the host draws a name and everyone else sends the winner a fat quarter of some fun fabric. I was the February winner! This is what has shown up so far...

Fabulous FQs from SwapBot buddies. Thanks all!

2) I finally jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. There's a great quilty chat on Tuesday evenings called Talkin' Tuesday (#talknt) from 7-9 Mountain Time. Every week there is a different sponsor and tweeters have 2 chances to win. Two weeks ago 1Choice4Quilting was the sponsor and offered up some gorgeous Sunkissed by Sweetwater. I was the lucky winner of 8 half yards!

Gorgeous Sunkissed by Sweetwater. Thanks Shawna!

Isn't it beautiful? The best part is that I had just bought 2 charm packs of Sunkissed and a coordinating solid to make a small quilt. Now with these added 4 yds I can make a larger quilt.

3) The next day I got a notice from A Farmish Kind of Life that I had won this fun little book with easy rules for healthy eating. It's a quick read with gems like "Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food." And "Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk."

Michael Pollan's "Food Rules." Thanks Amy!

4) Saturday, March 19th was National Quilting Day. I went into work to help with all the fabulous sales that she was having at the quilt shop. While there, my boss told me that I needed to put my name in for a drawing for one of the 5 $10 gift certificates that she was giving away. Yesterday she told me that I was one of the winners.

I knew I needed to keep the giveaway gods happy so I put my gift certificate towards a giveaway of my own. And here it is...

One lucky winner will receive this fun little FQ set that I put together.

See that striped fabric? That's from Heather Ross' Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries (you know, the goldfish collection). I sure wish that my LQS carried other fabrics from this collection, but I was excited just to see this one in person. The orange and blue in this fabric are just beautiful. :) I didn't pay attention to the names of the other fabrics that I picked out, but I can find out when I go into work tomorrow if anyone's interested.

The shop still has 3 or 4 FQ's of this HR fabric left (for a reasonable price), so if you don't end up winning the giveaway but are in need of this fabric for your collection just let me know and we can arrange a swap.

* * * * *

And now for the giveaway rules. Everyone gets up to three chances to win. Leave a separate comment for each of the following.

1) Leave any comment. Tell me your favorite fabric collection, favorite color, how your day is going, anything.

2) Become a follower or tell me if you already are following my blog.

3) Tweet about the giveaway. An example of what to post: "Wanna win some FQs? @aprairiesunrise is having a giveaway. Visit for a chance to win. http://aprairiesunrise.blogspot.com/"

If you are a no-reply blogger or anonymous commenter be sure to leave your email address in your comment. Otherwise I will have no way to contact you if you win and I'll have to draw another winner.

The giveaway will be open until Monday, March 28th at 8PM Mountain Time. The winner will be announced Tuesday, March 29th.

Edit: For a fourth chance to win, either mention the giveaway on your blog or FB. Make sure to leave a comment telling me that you did. :)

Good luck!

Comments are now closed. Thank you for entering. The winner will be announced tomorrow.