Odin's Ravens; Hugin & Munin

When I first started thinking about "Communication", I had more ideas than I needed. My first impulse was to go with "Communicating arteries", & "Neurons" (probably because of my medical background). I wasn't sure though that was the way I wanted to go. I also thought about eyes, & how they alone can communicate.

While I was letting my brain stew on it a bit, I was reading a book about the Vikings. I also had a close encounter with a Raven, & he posed for about 32 photos for me. In the book I was reading Hugin represented "thought, or mind" & Mumin was "memory". They were said to be messengers for the  Norse God, Odin. They would set upon his shoulder & whisper in his ear.

This reminded me of the time that a Raven helped me find a piece of lost mail. We stopped at our mailbox one Chinook windy, evening, & my DH tried to pull the mail out of the box, when a gust of wind (90+ mph), grabbed one of the envelopes & blew it away. Our hillside was covered in deep mushy snow, the envelope was white,& it was dark outside. We trudged through the snow, thigh deep, looking for a white envelope, on white snow, in the dark, with hurricane force gusts of warm winds. After about 30 minutes we gave up & went home.

The next day, I walked back down by the mailboxes, then up into the snow & woods, in the direction I thought most likely that the envelope would've traveled. I wandered up & down, looking, when I noticed a raven up on a wire, watching my every step, & chortling at me. I looked up at him, & said, "Fine, if you're so smart, tell me were my mail is". He tilted his head, & looked right at me, then flitted a little way up the road, & stopped looking down at the snow then back at me. I said, "OK, what have I got to lose?". & headed up the road toward the raven. Right below him in the snow, was the letter from my sister. I thanked him profusely, & always talk to the ravens when ever I see them.

While thinking about "Communication", & taking pictures of the raven, I decided that NOW was the time, that I could make the raven quilt that I've always wanted to make, so here it is.

The black sky part is black batting, with black Misty Fuse, covered with Angelina fibers for the Aurora Borealis, & a layer of black silk chiffon over it. The white lower part s white batting, with more Angelina fibers, & some bits of Whisper, covered with white silk chiffon. I realized after trimming it up, that I had cut it an inch short of the required 20 inches, so I added an inch of bead fringe (by hand of course)!

My ravens are completely made from thread. I used 3 colors to give them more life& dimension. Details will be on my blog.