The latest Art Quilts Around the World challenge was to create a quilt that represents Folklore. I had a lot of thoughts running through my mind, but decided to go for something based on the trip that the ladies in my family took to Alaska last year. While there I became fascinated with the Raven and the images of the Raven in their mythology, therefore, I decided to focus on that idea and created my folklore quilt:
There are many different tales from the different people of Alaska (as well as other indigenous groups throughout the Americas) that have tales based on the Raven. One of my personal favorites is the Tlingit story is the Raven Brings the Sun. Here is what I found on Wikipedia regarding this particular story:
In Tlingit culture, there are two different raven characters, which can be identified, one is the creator raven - responsible for bringing the world into being and who is sometimes considered to be the individual who brought light to the darkness. When the Great Spirit created all things, he kept them separate and stored in cedar boxes. The Great Spirit gifted these boxes to the animals who existed before humans. When the animals opened the boxes all the things that comprise the world came into being. The boxes held such things as mountains, fire, water, wind, and seeds fora ll the plants. One such box, which was given to Seagull, contained all the light of the world. Seagull coveted his box and refused to open it, clutching it under his wing. All the people asked Raven to persuade Seagull to open it and release the light. Despite begging, demanding, flattering, and trying to trick him into opening the box, Seagull refused. Raven became angry and frustrated, and stuck a thorn in Seagull's foot. Raven pushed the thorn in deeper until the pain caused Seagull to drop the box. Then out of the box came the sun, moon, and stars that brought light to the world and allowed the first day to begin.
And just because I really enjoyed doing some thread work on on this quilt, here is a closeup of on the Raven:
Lastly, I attempted to face this quilt rather than do a binding because I felt that this didn't need to have anything stopping the flow.
