Soup, Muffins, Wood Workout, Hand Quilting and Free Patterns

I'd put my chicken carcass on the stove to boil down to make a base for yesterday's chicken soup.  Half an hour later I thought what on earth is making that smell.  I went to the kitchen to investigate only to see it was my chicken broth bubbling happily away. Thankfully I always start with lots of water in the pot and a low heat.

 Totally forgot it-wiped from the brain and now I can see how old people can start fires in their houses, right under their noses. Hubby says it's because I'm always juggling a number of things at once. I tell him that's just being a woman and I've been doing that all my life.  Besides which, at that time, I was juggling or attempting to juggle exactly two things...the soup and a bit of reading. Thankfully our smoke alarms (which are very high up with the ceilings here) have 25 year batteries. 

I added tinned tomatoes to this one... San Marzano is one of my favourites. 

The weather has been wonderful. The warmest November I've experienced here in Ontario. Last year this time there was snow on the ground and the pond was so frozen we could walk on it.  With temperatures up to high teens most days, nature is reacting like it's spring. More new growth here in the purple globe thistle for instance.

Maybe I could blame that lapse in memory on being sapped a bit physically. Loading wood on the trailer and then stacking it next to the house the last couple of days was quite a workout for us both. I noticed how differently we react to a little physical labour. I ache a bit whereas Hubby gets really tired and needs more sleep. I've noticed after day 3 of moving my body like this I've been sleeping better as well.  So thankful we can both still manage these chores. 

We have the other half of our wood order coming Saturday. We are already thinking we will stack it at the drop off and cover it well. Save us lugging it up here to the house and that way we can space out our wood getting trips as we need it. 

 I have a bunch of other things to share this post.

Let's start with food, my favourite topic and combine it with the season which normally (how much nothing seems to be normal this year) is one of comfort food.

Crosby's Molasses has a free e-book section. I downloaded Comforts of Home- 20 recipes for Homemade Comfort Food.  Molasses has 25% fewer calories than sugar so if you like it that's good. I'm not a big molasses fan but I love it in baked goods. 

Crosby's Comforts of Home E-Book

I made a batch of loaded bran muffins...raisins, dates and pumpkin seeds added to these. 

I found this wonderful free tree pattern with a tutorial from generous Leanne at Devoted Quilter named Ticker Tape Tree.  Super easy, really neat how this goes together and another scrap using pattern. I'm going to get out my green scraps and give this a try one morning very soon. I'll finally get to use green thread in the machine. 

Rachel at Stitched in Color and Lucy at Charm About You are co-hosting a sewalong called Geesey Geesey. A chance to practice keeping all the points when making many many geese. I'm thinking this could be an excellent candidate for the RSC which I assume will start again with colours in January. Or right now in Christmas fabrics. 

This colourway, which looks like Art Gallery fabrics to me, is appealing. I like how vintage patterns take on a completely modern look depending on the fabrics. 

I have to prep more spool blocks for the Medallion quilt and make the last of the fans to total 18.  

I love how hand quilting looks and feels. It is addictive and maybe that has to do with the soothing effect of this kind of slow stitching. 

Here I took the Halloween Sampler out of the frame to get a photo. Enjoying this stitching very much and getting a hang of how much slack I need in the cloth to get the rocking motion going.

A couple of woodpecker photos taken from a great distance down by the pond. Interesting how they use their tails for stability. They are enjoying the suet cakes I've put out and I'm seeing more of them. Update: This has been identified as a yellow bellied sapsucker by birder friend David at Travels With Birds.

Hopefully I'll have further opportunities to get better photos. 

We are off to do a grocery and dog food pickup. Hope your Thursday is a great one. 

As always, linking this post with Not Afraid of Color, Paying Ready Attention, Inquiring Quilter, For the Love of Geese, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Alycia Quilts, Quilting Applique Patchwork, Viewing Nature With Eileen and It's a Small Town Life.