Serendipity

Now that the delights of family immersion are over, I have returned my focus to my quilting.  Nature gave me two gifts today:  a thoroughly self-possessed coyote trotted across our back hill just a few yards outside the kitchen window this afternoon.  His coat was so thick and long you could easily have sunk both hands into it--gray on top and shading to a deep, rich red brown, a color that I worked a long while to capture this fall as I was dying fabric. It was one of those Oh-my-gosh!-moments.

Earlier in the day Tom and I got a thorough look at a sharp-shinned hawk that had perched in the chestnut tree outside another kitchen window.  He had the same striking color of brown on his breast and on the front and sides of his neck.

I had to do something with that color and later in the day I began a challenge piece that yesterday I had decided not to do because it was not close enough to my usual range of subject matter and technique.  That shade of brown is an important element in it, and working on this project that is a little outside my comfort zone has been satisfying so far.  With luck, you will see more on this.

And I had to remind myself that, not only would I not have gotten any quilting done today, but I would have missed both those beautiful creatures had I been working at the library instead of working at home.