Onwards and Upwards

Deuteronomy I, in progress

I wish there was a grand and glorious reason for why I have been absent from Blogland, such as the Yarn Harlot's heroic fundraising bike ride, but all I did was move house, for the forty-second time in my adult life. May I never have to move again. I'm wrung out - and it was even a pretty simple move. Just around the block to a somewhat bigger, nicer cabin. I still have too many books and cartons of fabric and art supplies, so I need to get ruthless and edit it all down some more, but some patches of open space are beginning to appear amongst the stacks of boxes, bins and totes as things find their place.

I made it a priority to get back to stitching as soon as I could. It keeps me sane, or so I am told. I finished le taugaret (possibly a sharp-shinned hawk) before the move, and le turc (nighthawk, not really a raptor) just the other day. He was so much fun to stitch, with those little crescent shaped spots. Now I am working on the last bird of the series, a young bald eagle.

These raptors have been haunting my sleep. I had a dream last week where a baby eagle hatched itself out of my thigh just above my knee and flew away. Eagles are such powerful, mythic creatures - I have no idea what one was doing in my thigh - so I took it as an auspicious sign.

I'm at the stage when I can start thinking about the next set of critters - I'm leaning towards the aquatic mammals. I have to do a beaver of course, and Louis Nicolas drew some fairly funky looking ferrets and otters as well.