Catching the Sun

For weeks I knew EXACTLY what I was going to do for my Mythology piece. I was inspired by the rainbow serpent of aboriginal mythology and had all my fabrics and concept design mapped out. However, when it came time to actually make my quilt, I ended up returning to my New Zealand roots.

The desire for more hours in the day, it seems, is not a peculiarly 21st century phenomena. Maui, the hero of Maori/Polynesian mythology, was asked by his mother to slow down the sun so more work could be done in the light. Maui and his brothers made a flax net to snare the sun. They dragged the sun into a pit and Maui clubbed the sun into submission with the magic jawbone from his ancestress.

My work shows the stage of the netting of the sun. I have cross-stitched the yellow section in hand-dyed variegated threads (some I dyed myself but there's also thread from Dyed and Gone to Heaven). The stitching is quite, ahem, "organic" but it does add visual interest and nets rarely stretch evenly (that's my story anyway).

I had good intentions of finishing off the hand stitching while away on a teaching assignment but that didn't happen and I have returned home to recuperate. I'll post an updated photo when I finish the stitching, and decide which orientation I prefer.