Pojagi Panel #3

Here's #3, (okay... technically it's my 4th panel, but for some reason I forgot to count my first effort. Probably because it felt so experimental to me, having never done it before, and wondering if my machine stitched efforts would even work.... I hope that first one doesn't feel left out... poor little pojagi panel.... I love you, I really do.)

Ah, but I digress...


This panel definitely has an improvised, modern quilt vibe going on.


These are the seams from the "back side", and below from the "front side".



Now, if you give pojagi a try, (and I hope you do), and you want to hang yours in the window, your best bet would be to use light weight fabrics, as they will let the light shine through more.


If you like cotton fabric, as I do, a light weight muslin works well, and I think one made from vintage hankies might be pretty cool, too, but I haven't tried that yet. This one, and my previos two were made from Kaffe Fassett shot cottons, which are lighter in weight then the Robert Kaufman ones, (which are great for quilts!) Also, Fassett made them in conjunction with Oxfam, an international charity that champions fair trade, thus helping to support the poverty-stricken weaving villages in India and Guatemala where the cloth is produced... that makes me very happy.

Remember... see here for a tutorial on machine stitching the seams!

Pojagi Panel #2

For this, my second pojagi panel, I used two colors of shot cotton, a magenta and a peach... Neither are colors that I am currently drawn to, but I thought they would work well in this venue.


Using 2 colors instead of 1 allowed me to play a bit more with the stained glass effect that this type of patchwork offers.


The piecing is all improvised, (I'd go insane if I had to sew something like this from a pattern!)


The seams on this panel were done differently then on my first panel, (which you can see here). To learn how the seams were stitched on both panels, see my tutorial in the post below!

Playing with Pojagi

Still playing with Pojagi inspired patchwork...


Because all of the seams are folded in and stitched down, both sides can be displayed...


I think that the stitched patches and seam work really give the cloth a wonderful utilitarian feel...


This shot cotton was woven with green and yellow threads, producing a beautiful chartreuse color...


By alternating the direction of the grain on the individual patches, sometimes, (depending on how the light hits the cloth) some patches appear more green based, and some more yellow based...


And of course, hung in the window creates a totally different look...




This Pojagi Inspired Utilitarian Patchwork Panel/Runner is currently available in my shop. Note: Now sold.

Breaking the Shell

Many thanks to you all, as I was really touched and encouraged by the comments left after my last post. By that evening things started to become clearer to me, and the shell began to crack open. I realized that the reason I was having a hard time translating the lines and shapes that were in my mind into quilts, is because this time, I wasn't suppose to put them into quilts... I was suppose to just put them into cloth.


Wanting to keep going with the theme of utilitarian patchwork, I turned to Pojagi, (which is a type of Korean patchwork, often used to make square wrapping cloth) for inspiration.

Traditionally, (from what I can gather) Pojagi is constructed with hand stitched french seams, that are then tacked down with very small hand stitches. However despite my love of hand stitching, I knew that I didn't want to do it that way, (as I tried it once and didn't like it!)

I kept thinking about it and as I fell asleep I saw how I might do it on the machine, and the next morning I woke up and started to create a humble little panel out of muslin.


I joined my patchwork with machine stitched traditional seams, pressing them open, and tucking the raw edges in, then stitching them down... (and I enjoyed the process very much this time!)


To continue the play of light and shadow that this work encourages, I also added a little pocket where a leaf can be tucked into.

Now my mind is expanding with new ideas, and it feels wonderful. My next experiment with this construction method will be a long and narrow cloth runner made with shot cottons. Can hardly wait!