Friday, July 1, 2011

Progress on "Come Dance with Me" and Beginning Another

This is where I was the last time I posted about "Come Dance with Me." Just so you can visualize the piece a little better...it is over five feet tall!
Here is my latest picture showing my progress. These pieces are just pinned up on my design wall.
There are still buttons to add, embroidery to do, stabilizer to tear off, and applique to complete--just on the central character. I'm going to be dragging this entire piece with me when I'm on my travels this month, so that I can get some of that work done. I'm only home a few days all month, and I HAVE to keep making progress on this piece. I still haven't decided what my background will look like. What do you think? Any suggestions?

I have been reading about Pojagi, (also known as Bojagi or Bojaki) and pronounced "Po-Jah-ki." It is a very old, traditional form of Korean patchwork I just learned about on the Internet. One of it’s features is the way the seams are made, enabling both sides of the item to be used. You can see a great video about Pojagi here--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6tKcWBI6zs. A good tutorial for machine stitched pojagi is here--http://thesillyboodilly.blogspot.com/2010/07/pojagi-machine-stitch-seam-tutorial.html and here--http://www.quiltingdaily.com/media/p/25984.aspx, but I really prefer the hand stitched look. Check here for how to do a hand-stitched version--http://mairuru.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-to-sew-patchwork-furoshiki.html. This piece is just a start. I'm not sure where it will lead me. (You can't really tell from the picture, but the background fabric is a subtle black and blue.) The red pieces are machine sewn into the fabric. I am working on doing some of the blocks using reverse applique (by hand) that I'll add to this section later.

I have in mind doing a series of pieces on domestic violence. This is the start of the first piece. I'm really enjoying the feel of the fabric in my hand. I love the peace that comes to me when I do handwork. That peace is SO contradictory to the feeling of helplessness when a loved one is in a situation that involves domestic violence. I'm sure I'll be working through some long buried feelings when I work on these pieces.

2 comments:

Beth said...

Thank you for posting about the Korean quilting. My son is adopted from Korea and I think this is something I need to try! I consider myself a traditional quilter who likes different colors, so this type of patchwork would be a stretch for me. That would be a good thing!

Beth in AZ (ps. I like your name too lolol)

Quilt or Dye said...

I was introduced to the stitching technique about a year ago. I love the look of it. It is on my list of techniques to try.

Have fun with your traveling!