I Got A Little Inspiration From Above This Morning...

 

The Quilters Prayer

Dear Lord in Heaven, 

Fill me with Inspiration to put the fabric in my care to good use.

 Give me Wisdom to not discard the scraps as useless and to later combine those leftover into a more masterful Work of Heart than the original intended use.

 Give me Faith in myself, that my works are worthy to be shared & passed on to Generations yet to be.

 Give me Time...for my hands and eyes to continue to create and enjoy this collection of goods we refer to as "Stash".

 Give me Opportunity to sit in Heaven Above a Hundred Years from now and look down upon my Quilt, now tattered, torn & faded by love and ages, tenderly held up in a guild meeting and referred to as "Antique".

Amen...

 Nancy Cobler~

March 28th, 2014

Still Feeding My Kids...

Hi Kiddos!  I made this recipe, from Allrecipes.com twice now.  I have some burger in the fridge that I need to cook so I'm making it again today.  It's very similar to one I used to make when you were little that had the ketchup/brown sugar on the top.  The only thing I did different was to use Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs instead of Crushed Crackers because that's what I had on hand.  I may try it using rice too.  The first time I made it, we had it for dinner immediately, and I didn't like that texture so much, but the next day I took some to work for lunch.  It had settled at that point and it was really good!  The squishy was gone, so my thing with this recipe is, that its an easy one you can make in the morning then let sit in the fridge til dinner or while you're making Sunday nights dinner, throw a meatloaf in the oven while you're at it for after work on Monday night.  ALSO, it's totally not necessary to grease the pan, even with really lean burger.  I also think the idea of oil mixed in with the ketchup/brown sugar mixture sounds kinda gross! Love, Your Mommy! Brown Sugar Meatloaf

Rated: Submitted By: tangastar Photo By: mominml Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 1 Hour Ready In: 1 Hour 30 Minutes Servings: 8

"This brown sugar meatloaf is glazed with brown sugar and ketchup for a moist and flavorful weeknight dinner."

Ingredients:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup ketchup 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef 3/4 cup milk 2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 small onion, chopped 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 3/4 cup finely crushed saltine cracker crumbs

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 5x9 inch loaf pan.
2.	Press the brown sugar in the bottom of the prepared loaf pan and spread the ketchup over the sugar.
3.	In a mixing bowl, mix thoroughly all remaining ingredients and shape into a loaf. Place on top of the ketchup.
4.	Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until juices are clear.

St. Patty's Day Cabbage Anyone?

Have I mentioned before that our Katie, was born on St. Patty's Day???????

These are pictures you may have seen before, from her Irish Honeymoon last summer.

 

No, we didn't eat Corned Beef & Cabbage each year because she wasn't fond of it as a child and she was a Taco girl!  So we ate tacos every St. Pattys Day, sometimes in green spinach tortillas!

One cabbage recipe that has always been a hit, however is Cabbage Lasagne!  I know, sounds a little off putting at first, but wait til you try it!  We've even done this Dutch Oven style over the campfire for a Llama Association Rendezvous Potluck.  We just bagged up the layers in ziplocs at home and put it together at the campsite.  I made it last night for our over the phone surprise birthday party where we shared not just one but TWO birthday cakes that our Irish Lovin' girl was unable to partake in.  We made her suffer without a shred of guilt!  We giggled and laughed all evening!  We also had the delightful company of our youngest son, his girlfriend/fiancé & her little nieces, ages 5 & 9!  Those little girls have our son wrapped around their fingers and lovingly call him No-No, the nickname Noah was given by a former basketball coach!

 

Cabbage Lasagne Recipe

 

Brown 1 lb. Ground Beef

add 1 diced onion & 1 diced bell pepper & saute'.  Drain.

Add one Jar/Can of Spagetti Sauce with Mushrooms.

In a 9 x 13 baking dish layer 1/2 head chopped cabbage.

Cover with 1 lb. of grated Mozzerella Cheese.

Top with Ground Beef Mixture and Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

 

If you're doing Crockpot or Dutch Oven you can double the recipe and do multi layers.

That way you won't waste half of a perfectly good head of cabbage, unless you're making Cole Slaw to serve on the side.

 

Last night I wanted one pan to go and one pan to keep at home for later.

I used the other half of my cabbage for the second pan and only doubled the meat, peppers, cheese and spaghetti sauce (combining 2 different favorite flavors)

I stuck to just one onion because for my tumbly, one onion goes a long way.

I just divided everything up evenly as I layered back and forth between the two!

 
I hope you try it and enjoy the cheesy goodness as much as we do!

I wish you all a Happy St. Patricks Day, as mine has been so blessed these past 31 years!

Katies 4-H/FFA/Growing Up with Critters Memory Quilt in Honor of her Vet School Graduation.

 

 

~Nancie O'Anne

 



Country Homecoming Quilt Along Month Two

It's time to share the next two blocks for my Country Homecoming Quilt!

I worked on a very uncharacteristically primitive buttonhole stitch while watching 4 episodes of The Quilt Show at the computer this afternoon with Maecee cuddled up behind me in my office chair.

Did you know that since this is International Quilting Weekend you can log on to The Quilt Show and watch any of 160 older episodes of the show for free?  This goes through Sunday and I made a short list of a few more that I want to see before the weekend is over.  I struggle a bit with the idea of paying to watch a show online...but then again, we pay for subscriptions to Quilt Magazines, right?

So here are the next two blocks, I was inspired by a door that one of the other participants made last month who was brave enough to cut it on the bias.  I love the crosshatched look!  I decided that this month I needed to try adding shutters to my windows!  Aren't they cute with shutters?  Again, the big picture window in the living room is my own design choice.  HOME, to me, always has a big front window...otherwise, how are you going to share your Christmas Tree with the rest of the neighborhood?  The grey and green house may get another couple of windows, we'll see.

I purchased the awesome red homespun with the little gold and black stripes running through it last month when I had that "Tree, Tree, Tree, SQUIRREL!" moment. 

It is the prettiest red!  Love, Love, Love It!

Oh yeah...check out the chimneys on the grey/green house...Its this cool woven stuff with little saltbox houses and stars in it that I found in the tub of an old wringer washer at one of the local LQS's.  I dug every little scrap of it out that I could get my hands on and stuffed it in my little grab bag.  In true salvage fashion the door and shutters on that house came from a little 6 x 6 square that was in the same tub!  SCORE!

 

Rather than tracing every little window and shutter individually, I'm doing the math and cutting a strip of fusible web large enough for several same size pieces at once, fusing it to my fabric then cutting them out with my trusty ruler and rotary cutter.  So much more efficient!  Especially when you've been doing other things and now find yourself in a time crunch!

To see what the other participating architects have been building, take a trip over to

Kim's Big Quilting Adventure!

 

 

My 5'9" tall Leprechaun...daughter...has a birthday Monday!

Shipped her package to her today...oh how I miss her naughty little Leprechaun ways!

Since she has relocated we are getting together Sunday night with the rest of the kids who are in town and we are going to Skype her and then sit and eat her birthday cake in front of the camera!  Teach her to move so far away!!!!!

Orneriness seems to be contagious in this family!  I'm not sure where they all get it!

 

Watch for Rainbows!  Pot o' Gold or not, they're a treasure in themselves!

 

~NancieAnne

 

 

 

Quilty Fun Progress

Here are the most recent Quilty Fun Sew Along blocks that I made last weekend!

 

We're on the downhill run now as we are just a few weeks from making our final blocks and setting our tops together!  Don't let this dissuade you from starting though...it's never too late to begin!

 

If you'd like to see a ton of super cute blocks, visit the Quilty Fun Flickr Page.

You can find it HERE.

 

I've purposely saved some of the steps that I consider "filler" blocks so that I can make decisions about dispersing colors around the quilt.  It might be scrappy and fun, but I still feel the need to do some planning and evaluating to bring some of my own wonky sense of balance to the finished product.

 

~Nancie Anne