Don Porcella at Alphonse Berber

Don's exhibit will be on display until October 2 at 575 Sutter St.
San Francisco, CA on second floor. Also see Don's exhibit in Berlin opening in September. Info on Don's Blog http://donporcella.blogspot.com

Yvonne Porcella Bold Strokes

Save the date Nov. 16, 2010 for the opening of my exhibit at
the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles in San Jose, CA. If you can't be there for the opening, visit anytime until January 30, 2011

SAQA 2010 auction quilt

Please visit the SAQA web site and look at the wonderful 12" square quilts that will be auctioned off beginning on September 20th. "Bid in SAQA's 2010 Benefit Auction starting September 20th: http://www.saqa.com/news.php?ID=1423"

International Quilt Market 2010

International Quilt Market in Houston opens October 30-November 1, 2010. George R. Brown Convention Center Houston, Texas. This is a Trade show only. Not open to the general public.
International Quilt Festival open to general public Nov. 4-7. Please go to www.quilts.com for registration information. Two of my quilts will be on exhibit, "Dick & Jane" on display in Art Quilts from the Book, 500 Art Quilts and "Madama Yolanda - Mind Reader" in the exhibit Beneath The Surface. Current photos from International Quilt Festival Long Beach can be seen on the Quilts, Inc web
site, click on the ruby red slippers.

High Fiber Under Five

First Friday in November at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles is the sale High Fiber Under Five. A great opportunity to purchase fiber art. Half of the sale price is shared with the artist and half goes to the museum. Large crowds attend this event
and if you are in San Jose plan to gallery hop that night and see great art. Highest price per piece is $500.00 but lower priced pieces are also available. Title of this still life is Platinum and Pearls

Victory Garden Quilt for Auction

I posted a photo of my panel on my blog in June and now here is the full quilt. Money raised will support SAQA 12 Voices exhibit in Davis, CA

Yellow Page

My initials are YP, I have had experiences where people ask for last name, I answer Porcella, then first initial, I answer Y and the comment back to me is "because we need it". The letter Y obviously when spoken becomes "why". I made this quilt in response to the Why P conflict. I used Mistyfuse to fuse each panel to the batting and machine quilted each panel finally adding the border. An old favorite yellow silk blouse with 25 tiny yellow buttons done the front finally became too labor intensive to wear, buttoning each button. I cut up the shirt, wet each piece, sqeezed out the water, ironed it to maintain the wrinkles, fused this to maintain the wrinkled fabric, then used this "new fabric" for the borders.

Victory Garden

Louise Schiele asked 14 artists to make a 7" x 24" panel for a group quilt that will be auctioned off this summer to benefit 12 Voices SAQA artist exhibit. We could choose a fruit or vegetable for our panel. Louise asked that it be colorful and fun. She will join the panels together and do the machine quiltig. "U Pick Em" is my entry, lovely cherries ripe for picking only to find out the birds have had the first taste. To see all the submitted panels.http://louiseschieleworksandwords.blogspot.com/

Quilt Market Houston 2010

If you attend Quilt Market as a wholesale customer or vendor, be prepared to see this quilt. Selected from the book 500 Quilts edited by Karey Bresenhan and one of the featured exhibits at
Houson 2010, the image of my quilt will be featured on the Quilt Market catalog, tote bag and pin. I am excited, and I hope you will be too when you get to take home a small remembrance of my art. See you all at Quilt Market Houston.

New from Old quilt contest

The Alliance for American Quilts has a contest every year and
the quilts are auctioned as a fund raiser for this wonderful organization. My design uses images from previous entries I submitted so that qualifies as the old part, the new part is bright new fabrics. I titled the quilt Redotwo Ten, referring to recycling my designs, and redoing images of houses and giant flower trees. The actual quilt is very bright colors, 16" square, my phone camera doesn't compensate for light. Visit the Alliance website to hear more about the eBay auction later this year.

Historical Photo! Yvonne's Fashion Show

Many years ago I agreed to do a fashion show of my wearables. The local newspaper took this photo. I photocopied the photo and hand colored it to use it in a new quilt titled "Talking Through the Fence". The quilt top requires machine quilting, some day in the future.

SAQA 2010 auction quilt

I guarantee this quilt is a perfect 12" square but apparently my iPhone camera doesn't think so. Title of this quilt is "Oh - O". Look for the auction on the SAQA web site.

Detail of Ballet Shoes

Ballet Shoes

Just for fun project. A friend gave me a pair of size 4 1/2 toe shoes to make art. I used my impression of two different themes to "fill the shoes". The shoe on the right celebrates famous
dance themes of flowers plus my watching a ballerina moving her legs that reminded me of a butterfly. Silk flowers were made using Hannah Silk hand painted ribbons. The shoe on the left reminded me of all the different ballet companies who go on tour. When I go on a tour, I like to make a journal to remind me of places I have visited, pasting trinkets into a book or in this case, a shoe.

Jamie Fingal Designs Collaboration Quilt For Yvonne

Jamie Fingal, Leslie Tucker Jenison and Iris Karp sent out a call for friends to make a block for a "gift of love" quilt for me. I am being treated for ovarian cancer and what a fabulous project for me to enjoy and treasure during and after this "side line" event of 2010. Jamie has the development of this quilt on her blog http://jamiefingaldesigns.blogspot.com/. Check out March 20th entries. I cannot imagine how much effort went into the making of this quilt in such a short period of time. Quilting is all about friendship and I am honored to be remembered by so many.

Beneath The Surface

Dinner at Eight Artists presents Beneath the Surface, a special exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, CA - July 22-25th at the Long Beach Convention Center. Sponsored by Moore's Sewing Centers and Brother International and Dinner at Eight Artists. for more information become a fan of http://dinnerateightartists.blogspot.com/

Jacket Pattern packaging

My new pattern is now available. Ask your local Bernina Store to order one for you.

New Book Information

500 Art Quilts, juried by Karey Bresenhan, showcases the work of 363 fabulous contemporary quilters. Martha Sielman, executive director of Studio Art Quilt Associates, describes the book as "an incredible feast for the eyes ... this book is a must-have for every art lover, quilter, and fiber enthusiast." Learn more at http://bit.ly/7RqgW2. Thisbook is also available for purchase from Amazon.com. The first printing is expected to sell out quickly so get your copy NOW. Then go to Amazon.com and leave a five star review of the book. I have two pieces featured in the book (thank you Karey), one is my large abstract titled "Dick and Jane" the other is a tryptic made using a variety of mixed media techniques. A very different look for me but such fun to experiment with Mistyfuse as a way to apply different fabrics to the surface.

March and the color Red

It was such fun to go out to breakfast with my friend Kay. My appetite is coming back and I had a beautiful cream cheese stuffed french toast covered with blueberries and strawberry sauce. I just sat there and enjoyed looking at the lucious colors; then I ate the whole thing! My red outfit was perfect for the day as I still experience hot and cold periods: off with the jacket, on with the jacket.The hat is essential to cover my bald head. Suzanne Staud, artist supreme, invited us to visit her studio to look at the artwork she is preparing fora local gallery exhibit. What a fun morning. Too bad you all can't come to Modesto on March 13th to attend The Chartreuse Muse opening exhibit : Pets and their People. Great title for a 4 artist exhibit. www.TheChartreuseMuse.com or www.staudesign.com

Amazing how things change

Just a few weeks ago I was lecturing at a museum and now I am recovering from major surgery and starting treatment for my ovarian cancer. Obviously this all happened very fast but with the intervention of a SAQA member and her husband I was treated asap, I have already had one infusion and see my doctors next week. I avoided the shock of hair loss and I have a new do... Our grand daughter came over last night and we played with the computer camera. Here we are underwater. You can see by the photo that I intend to beat the odds and try my hardest to return to full health. Thanks for all the notes, emails, letters, good wishes. If you only knew how much they help!

de Young Museum

Be sure to visit the Amish Quilt Exhibit at the museum Large crowds on the weekends but worth heading to the textile galleries. Be sure to go into the study center. I love sitting at the computer terminal and looking at the collection. Also the drawers display precious smaller pieces. My lecture was well attended and the audience was enthusiastic about art quilts. Anyone can join the Textile Arts Council to support acquisitions and documentation of this important museum collection. The museum is joined with the Palace of the Legion Of Honor and together they are known as Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. What a treasure we have in our area.

Holiday Distractions

Well they are over, decorations put away (the last ones done today at church) so I guess it is time to get back to the job of being an artist. I am preparing silk kits for a fabric painting class this week for a guild and it is such fun to get all the materials out an then trying to see how well they will fit in my car. Driving does have its perks but a trunk is only so big. I go from my lecture and class on to another venue of a lecture. Then home again to put it all away. We will be doing my silk embellishment class that uses burned silk, the subject of my 1994 book Colors Changing Hue. Still a great technique with such varied results. I spent the last few weeks learning how to use my new Mac Book Pro laptop and transferring my power point presentations to that computer. Wow the images look so good on a larger screen. My former travel computer was a small PC with a small screen.

Trying Something New

Madama Yolanda:Mind Reader a new 36" x 48" quilt. Black damask fabric background, Mistyfused photo transfers, selective cut flowers, funky YP flowers, and of course, a variety of images that reside deep inside the complex yet creative mind of M. Yolanda.

Class Salt Creek Quilt Guild

All the members of this Chicago were so lively. I lectured last Thursday night and taught Friday and Saturday. Our Fantasy Floral and Fabulous Face class on Saturday produced some wonderful blocks. Stitching was to be completed at home.

The New Baby Boy

We had a baby shower last weekend and it was an opportunity for photos. I have more on my Face Book page but here is the quilt and new owner.

Portfolio 16

The SAQA annual portfolio showcasing work by professional artist members is available from www.saqa.com. Visit the website to see what else is available at the SAQA store.

Four Quilters Hall of Fame Honorees

During the American Quilt Study Group annual symposium (held this year in San Jose CA) the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles exhibited a lovely selection of quilts from the Joyce Gross Collection. The welcome event for the AQSG attendees was held at the museum with a special tour of the exhibit. Karen Alexander caught up with four previous Hall of Fame Honorees but unfortunately Merikay Walvogel the 2009 inductee was not in the gallery nor Barbara Brackman during the impromptu photo session. Visit the QHoF blog to read a brief bio of all the inductees and the special information on Merikay. Back row L to R, Jean Ray Laury, Yvonne Porcella, Bets Ramsey, front row Joyce Gross. The "gold" medal around Joyce's neck was given to each honoree. Jean, Bets and I all left our medals at home, but Joyce is the best and she wears hers to special events.
thequiltershalloffame.blogspot.com

Baby Boy Byrd

Our family continues to grow and my role of making next gen baby quilts is just beginning. This is the second quilt for our grandson's family. New baby boy was less than 24 hours old when I took this picture at the hospital. They had not picked a name when I made the quilt so the quilt shown here un-quilted is lovingly named Merlin. I will correct the title when I get the now finished 40" quilt back from the photographer.

Mistyfuse at Quilt Festival

Check out the Mistyfuse booth at Houston Quilt Festival and see the special "buttons" of individual artists who use this product in their art quilts. I love MF and just made a quilt for our daughters soon to be new grandchild. Mistyfuse is so easy to use and the MF goddess sheet is the best.

Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts

Martha Connell is archiving exhibits at Arrowmont and she sent two gallery photos showing my art from the faculty exhibit 1987 and 1989. "Stella" is viewed in 1989, a multi panel quilt currently in my collection. The second photo shows the back view of "This is a Long Distance Call" shown in 1987. This quilt was purchased for the collection of the Mint Museum Art + Craft by SAQA in 2000. Such fun to view these quilts from the past.

Dublin has beautiful towers of flowers along the main mall street. Bob is waiting for me to take this photo before we have a cup of tea and a pastry.

Cruise around British Isles

We visited major port cities in England, Ireland, Scotland. I posted more photos of the trip on my Facebook page. The weather was cool and often windy or light rain. I taught a class and gave a lecture to our tour group on the ship. What fun. We visited Stonehenge and Festival of Quilts in Birmingham before meeting the cruise ship in Southampton.

Julia Child

With the launch of the Julia and Julia movie with Meryl Streep, I thought I would share the quilt I made with Julia Child for the 1996 exhibit Women of Taste. I was able to meet Julia several times during the development of the quilt and exhibit. She was a wonderful lady.

Don Porcella Art at Alphonse Berber Gallery

Wonderful exhibit in Berkeley, CA across the street from UC campus. Don's sculpture is made from pipe cleaners. The standing figure has been purchased by a collector from Germany. It is a
such fun to see "Art Lover" standing in the gallery, viewing art on the wall.

A fun time in Long Beach

Wonderful dinner in Long Beach with Iris and Jamie and Leslie who took this photo (I captured the photo from her blog). My room mate Cathie and I had some free time between classes so we finally had an excuse to go shopping. Before we departed, dressed for serious shopping, I took our picture in the hotel room mirror. This mirror thing has become my photography of choice. Perhaps it is because my phone looks so good from the back.

Quilt Festival Long Beach

I am teaching three classes and doing all the prep this past week. My Mixed Media Silk Quilts includes fabrics to make the project. Fortunately we are driving so it will be easy to transport multiple suitcases in the car. Part of the fun of being at Quilt Festival is
seeing friends particularly in the Bernina Booth. Have you purchased your new Bernina yet?