Learning: Bojagi with Youngmin Lee

Last month, I took a Bojagi class with Youngmin Lee at the Pacific International Quilt Festival.  While the description and photos of the workshop that were posted online were a bit lacking, I was sure I would regret missing this class - and I was so right!  Of course, I didn't quite think through how I would be able to drive through notorious Bay Area traffic (made infinitely worse by a BART strike) to arrive at the class location 65 miles from my house first thing in the morning on a school day, so I was very tardy and missed the first 45 minutes of class.  I caught up quickly, though! 

You can get an idea of the stiffness of the cloth from this photo.

All of the stitching is done by hand.

This is as far as I got in a 6 hour class.  Not a very fast process!

Bojagi is a form of Korean patchwork that uses flat-felled seams to create a fully reversible square of cloth, traditionally used for a variety of things such as gift wrapping, covering food, and clothing storage.  Just do a google image search to see how wonderful and different they can be!  I was also able to work with a textile that I have never handled before called ramie, which is one of the oldest known cloth materials and is plant based.  According to Youngmin, ramie can be much more expensive than silk!

Youngmin Lee's beautiful patchwork.

As well as teaching us her stitching techniques which are made up of the tiniest stitches you can imagine, she also shared some of her work with us.  My pictures don't do them justice - they should be seen in person to be truly appreciated, but you can see more of her work on her website!

This was my favorite piece, all done in black ramie.

Can you even see those tiny hand stitches?

She has a DVD out teaching her techniques and it looks like a great resource.  You can also see more of her amazing, tiny hand stitches!