Easy BBQ Meatballs

 This recipe was passed to me by a friend recently.

It was super easy, doesn't take any fancy ingredients, and was quick to throw together.

The only change I made was the onion.

 I didn't have an onion on hand so I substituted the onion for onion powder.

BBQ MEATBALLS  

1-1/2 lbs. hamburger 
3/4 cup oats

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 small onion

1/4 teaspoon salt

pepper to taste

SAUCE

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 cup catsup

1 Tablespoon Worchestershire

1/2 cup water

dash of onion salt

Combine hamburger, oats, egg, milk, onion, salt, and pepper.

 Form into equally-sized meatballs. 

Place the meatballs in a greased baking dish. 

For the sauce, mix brown sugar, vinegar, catsup, Worchestershire, water, and onion salt. Pour over meatballs. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes, depending on the size of your meatballs. 

*TIP*

1. Use an ice cream scoop for making those equally-sized meatballs.

2. These are delicious - you just might want to double the recipe 😉

ENJOY!

Everyday Napkins

I am setting aside my Farm Girl Vintage blocks today to sew a few much-needed everyday napkins.

The stack above was getting pretty worn - I thought it was about time.

I like larger napkins - around 18  to 20 inches.

My everyday napkins usually come from leftover fabrics from another project or older fabrics I purchased and never found a use for.

As you see, I am not too worried that my everyday napkins don't always match.

 While I do try to make at least four matching napkins, there are many times I don't have enough leftover fabric for four large ones so I work with what I have.

To be honest, I fold them as I pull them out of the dryer and stack them in a basket. 

I don't worry that all the matching ones are folded together.

No one in my family really cares if the napkins match at a meal.

We just grab one off the top and sit down.

I have sewn cloth napkins many times in many different ways.

For our everyday napkins, I find using a serger is the quickest solution.

While I do find using a serger is the very quickest I still love a nice neat hem.

  I recently found this YouTube video that looked interesting and thought I would give it a try.
They looked super easy and pretty quick to make. 

I found this border fabric in my stash and thought it would make really pretty napkins.

 I had just enough to make four 18 inch napkins.

Just look how nice the mitered corners come out.

Because they came out so pretty, I decided to make a little tag and give them as a gift.

I have never thought about using border fabrics for napkins until now.
I will definitely be on the hunt now for more border fabric.

Back to MY everyday napkins...

As you can see, for every day they don't need to match or even be the same size.

Just use what you have.

Speaking of napkins, be sure to come back tomorrow...

I have a yummy recipe I am going to share.

Birthday Banner

This little Happy Birthday banner was so quick and easy to make just using a bit of heavy cardstock, 
my Cricut Maker, and a couple skewers. 

I LOVE my Cricut Maker!

DIY quilt markers

I LOVE cherries.

Cherry pie, cherry fabric, chocolate-covered cherries, cherry cupcakes, etc.

While I'm in this cherry mood, I decided to try my hand at making a few homemade labels for my fabric pieces.

Up to now, I've been using Scrabble tiles to label my fabric pieces after cutting.

I actually really like using the Scrabble tiles because they have a bit of weight to them. 

I see Lori Holts Alphabitties everywhere and decided to see if I might like something similar. 

Since I have a Cricut Maker I thought I would try making my own "Alphabitties".

 I thought these may come in handy if I needed to clip the fabric pieces together with the appropriate marker.

These were super easy to make. 

I designed the square and used an existing cherry design I found in Cricut Access.

 I printed my design on cardstock and adhered stick-on laminating sheets to both the front and back.

I then put my laminated cardstock into my Cricut Maker and set the cut for cardstock.

 Even adding more pressure to the cardstock setting it still took 3 passes to cut all the way through the two sheets of laminate and the sheet of cardstock. 

If anyone knows a better setting, please let me know and I will pass the info along.

Honestly, between me and you, I still prefer my little Scrabble tiles to my homemade labels.

The only thing I might change would be to add a bit of felt onto the back to keep them from slipping around on my fabric.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Farm Girl Vintage Baking Day

These blocks come together so quickly, I had to make another right away.

I'm thinking of adding buttons to each block and outlining the bowl below the mixing spoon with a decorative stitch to make it show up a bit better.

As you can see, I didn't think my fabric choice through very well.

The white background on the cherry fabric blends way too much with the actual background of the block.

I'm hoping a decorative outline stitch in maybe red or green may make it stand out a bit better.

Can these little blocks get any cuter?

Farm Girl Vintage

When Mr. Fisherman asked me last month what I wanted for my birthday

 I said...      

AMAZON GIFT CARD, PLEEEEEZZZ..................

I have had my eye on a few Lori Holt books for some time, so I knew just what I wanted.

It took me approximately 3 minutes after receiving my Amazon gift card to sign in to Amazon, go to my wish list, and spend that baby. 

And the very next day...

...they were at my front door.

I knew the very first block I wanted to make was the cute little

  Pie Cherries Block.

I have seen so many variations of this block - ALL cute. 

Here is my version...

Both Farm Girl Vintage and Farm Girl Vintage 2 give instructions for small (6") and larger (12") blocks.

 Still reeling from the frustration with the Patio Picnic, I chose the much simpler 12" block.

I LOVE these books. 

Lori has made it so easy to mix and match blocks from both books.

You can choose to make an entire quilt, a small wall hanging, table runner, potholder, etc.

She leaves it up to you and your imagination.

My imagination???

I imagined it would be much easier than piecing the Patio Picnic Quilt.

It was...

😉

It's Football Season !

Some say there are really only two seasons...

Football Season
and
Waiting for Football Season.

😂

While we were in the Waiting for Football Season I had a little fun with my Cricut.

I rummaged through my sewing/craft room for colored construction paper and things to recycle.

First, I found this pet-themed shadowbox I had purchased at The Dollar Tree some time back. 
I actually bought three of them with the thought of recycling them. 

I removed the Pet-friendly insert and painted it "Gator" blue.

It just took a little construction paper and vinyl to go from 

pet-friendly to football-friendly.

On one of his trips to Home Depot, Mr. Fisherman purchased a few different size tiles for me to play with.

I used one of the plain white 4x4 tiles and added a bit of orange and blue vinyl.

(Orange and blue - Florida Gator colors - of course)

Speaking of Mr. Fisherman...

he made me a few "stands" out of a wire hanger for the tile and the #1 sign.

He's just so smart and handy to have around 😉

(Not to mention handsome)

I then added removable vinyl to a plain white cereal bowl making it "The Gator Bowl".

Get it? The Gator Bowl? 

The Gator Bowl is an annual college football bowl game held in Jacksonville, Florida.

Now, you get it.

😊

And here ya go...

...finished and ready for actual Football season!

Last but not least... I made new Gator shirts for game day.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Labor Day weekend.

Go Gators !

********************
Oh, by the way, not to brag but...

 The Gators won their first game of the season Saturday night against Florida Atlantic.

14 - 35

********************

Whoohoo !

A clean cutting table...

 Has it really been a year?

Yep. One year since I posted.

Geeezzzz.....

What have I been doing?

Lots.

Just haven't had the mojo to blog about it.

After a year of staring at this thing taking up all the space on my cutting table, I decided it was time.... time to bite the bullet and finish it.

I did get a small push from Lea Anne at Podunk Pretties after reading her "Fudging It" post.

Lea Anne made me feel so much better about all the "fudging" I had to do to make this thing come together.

 Lea Anne is a quilter and pattern maker who is brave enough to admit she and most quilters do "fudge" to get their quilts to come together. 

The top is finally pieced. 

Whew!

These pieces were so tiny.

It's pretty wonky, and a lot of points don't exactly match up, but if you look at it from really far away it's not all that bad.

😊

 Right now I haven't any fabric for the back or binding. 
Until this pandemic calms down and I'm finally able to shop, it will be folded, put away and finally off my cutting table.

Thank you Lea Anne.

The hardest part is done.  

More Magic Cookie Bars

 Remember these?

I had wanted to try them using white chocolate chips, macadamia nuts, and coconut.

Here they are...

I actually liked them better.

They were not nearly as sweet.

I used this exact recipe.

 I just change out the butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, and pecans out for the white chocolate and macadamia nuts.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful and safe Thursday.

See ya soon.

A Stylish Guide to CLASSIC SEWING

For my birthday in August, Mr. Fisherman gave me an Amazon gift card.

Oh, how I love those Amazon gift cards.

😊

One of my favorite things to buy is sewing books of any kind.

I've been eyeing A Stylish Guide to CLASSIC SEWING by Sarah Gunn and Julie Starr since it first came out.

From all the reviews I read, I knew it wasn't an actual how-to sewing book before I purchased it.

 Having said that, they do include one pattern and instructions for The Modern Classic Pencil Skirt in the back of the book.

I loved this book.

I can read it over and over.

Just as the cover says, the book explores timeless garments with history and includes many modern styling tips for ready-to-wear results.

It includes the history, characteristics, sewing tips, fabric suggestions, how to style, and who wore these classic pieces.

The artwork is beautiful on every page.

 I read several reviews from people that gave this book only two or three stars.

I am thinking they were expecting a book of sewing instructions on classic patterns and were disappointed.

 I was not. 

The book is lovely.

I am really happy I purchased it.

Seriously, I can read it over and over....

Thanks Sara and Julie for such a beautiful book and allowing me to include a few pic's of the beautiful artwork inside.

Magic Cookie Bars

 Is anyone else baking, eating, baking, eating, and then baking and eating more?

I swear, by the time this pandemic is over I will have gained 50 pounds!

No lie.

Anyhow, I'm sure everyone has seen some version of these Magic Cookie Bars before.

You can pretty much add or take away anything you want once you get the basics down.

Below is the basic recipe I used.

Magic Cookie Bars

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs or 12 full-size crackers

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch morsels

1 cup shredded, sweetened coconut

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 13 x9 baking pan with nonstick spray.

Set aside.

Crush the graham crackers in a bag or food processor to make fine crumbs.

(I prefer the food processor)

Add the melted butter to your graham cracker crumbs and mix well.

Pour the graham cracker and butter mixture into the baking pan and press down using your fingers.

Top crust with the chocolate chips, butterscotch morsels, coconut, and pecans.

Pour the can of sweetened condensed milk evenly over the top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the edges are golden.

Cool completely before cutting. 

These are super easy to make and if you are looking for something to KILL your sweet tooth, these will definitely do the job. 

They were way too sweet for me, but Mr. Fisherman LOVED them.

 

Next time I think I will try white chocolate chips, macadamia nuts, and coconut.

I will let you know how they turn out.

 

Happy Monday everyone!