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?

Why oh Why add more tasks to my day

I set up a Facebook account and have enjoyed connecting with people. Seems like being on line takes up more time than it should but one click leads to another. I have been trying to clean up my studio but that too gets put on the back burner. I have been working with painted paper lately and finally finished a knitting project. I even tried making a drawing with the Type app on my iPhone.

Bernina Celebrity (Sewlebrity) Scrapbook

BERNINA is introducing a new section on www.berninausa.com website to highlight the National Artisans called Celebrity Scrapbook. Bernina is excited about the opportunity to feature the most creative people they know! I guess I qualify and my posting will be up by June 15, 2009. I hope you check out the pattern I have offered to make a block with Bernina amazing Satin Stitch used to Machine Applique around the edges of my pattern pieces. My original quilt will be auctioned later this year on the eBay auction site for The Alliance For American Quilts crazy quilts contest. I made 3 little quilts and our daughter Suzanne made her first ever quilt for the contest.

Facebook

Our extended family seems to be scattering all over the country and what better way to at least see photos of them - join Facebook. As if I didn't have enough to do, it is still fun visit on line to see all their candid photos. While on my recent trip along the East Coast, I took a self portrait a la "American Gothic" style of Don and I in front of a mirror. Good news is my IPhone has a lovely pink case so that also adds to the concept of living the 21st Century life style. Good friend Suzanne Staud of Staudesign performed her magic with the photo and don't you love all the colors! I posted this photo on my FaceBook album and here is is for you to enjoy.

Quilt National Colonial Williamsberg and North Carolina

I just returned from a 10 day trip to Athens, OH to enjoy the 2009 Quilt National and SAQA 20th Anniversary event. It was so exciting to see the exhibit but the highlight was meeting the artists and SAQA members who attended. From there I traveled to New York to meet our son Don and he and I toured Virginia and some of the historical spots. Rain and all, it was great fun. Then on to Raleigh NC for the NCQuilt Symposium and teaching 2 classes and giving one lecture. This is a well organized symposium that travels to cities in NC. They offer great classes with outstanding faculty. Getting caught up on emails and surfing the web and I was thrilled to see my SAQA auction quilt on their June virtual newsletter, and one of my quilts in the virtual special exhibit "Three".

Alliance For American Quilts Crazy Quilt Contest

The contest deadline is June 1st to get Your crazy quilt finished and shipped to the Alliance. I just finished my third 16" square. Remember you can bid on these donated quilts on eBay later this year. Continue to check out www.allianceforamericanquilts.org.

Self Portraits

Paducah Kentucky

I just returned from serving as one of the three judges who awarded the prizes for the quilts at the Paducah 25th Anniversary Show. The museum displayed 24 of the past quilts and many of the makers were able to attend and be recognized at the awards banquet. A portion of the museum's collection was also on display and I was pleased to see my quilt "On Wednesday Morning" on display. It is always nice to visit one of your quilts and see it in the beautiful surroundings of a museum. I was able to spend part of Monday with a group of Wisconsin Quilters who graciously invited me to join their motor home trek to Hancock's and other fabric sales as well as having lunch at the famous Patti's 1860 restaurant. I didn't take photos of the Paducah show but here is the speciality of Patti's a 8 inch coconut cream meringue pie (back view of Lemon meringue is across the table seen here as a white mountain).

 

Alliance For American Quilts Crazy Quilt Contest

This is my 16 inch square quilt that will be submitted to benefit the  Alliance For American Quilt. This and many others will be auctioned on eBay later this year.

Look for the Alliance on the web or in a major quilt conference in your area.  The contest is open to all but should reflect a crazy quilt style. I couldn't resist doing one of my fantasy faces using left over fused fabrics. Buttons and stitching add to the embellishment of the block. www.allianceforamericanquilts.org 

Fabric Self Portrait

Fabric Pictures or Self Portraits Class students will design a fabulous face using a self image as a starting point. As you can see in the six quilts shown here the faces became 

male and funky and fun. Pierre, Maurice, Monty, Pablo, Elvin/URA star, Jack/Joker

are titled top left to bottom right. Send me a comment or question regarding this class.

Studios Magazine is Available now

I just receive my copy of the spring issue of Studios and my article is on page 42. The every page in the magazine is full of ideas,
delights, and creative people with unique styles. I hope you will all pick up a copy soon. You don't want to miss this! To see more
of my work check my archive list for information on my Zine.

eBooks from C&T Publishing

The time is now! Download your copy of my book from C&T Publishing

C&T Publishing is bringing back out of print titles as eBooks and they are currently preparing  Magical Four-Patch and Nine-Patch Quilts (60184) for sale on line. I will post launch date and ordering information when available.   

Cloth Paper Scissors Stitch Magazine

The Spring issue is now available for pre-order. It will be sold on select newsstands March 31. See my studio. To pre-order http://www.interweavestore.com/store

/p/2518-Studios-Spring-2009-Pre-Order-.aspx

Here We Art On The Set

Thanks to Pokey for sending a photo of us on the set of Quilting Arts TV show taping.

Quilting Arts next Season

Great fun to visit Quilting Arts TV studio to tape a segment for the next series. I arrived in Cleveland Sunday afternoon, drove to the studio Monday morning with Jeanne Delpit, who was the Bernina support manager on set. After makeup and set up in the green room, I did my segment taping with Pokey Bolton, had lunch and left for the airport, arriving back in CA at 11 PM. 

Here are photos of what I would look like if I were taller and thinner. I couldn't resist taking my own picture in the mirror propped up on the wall. The distortion was perfect, I think I look at least 6 inches taller. Helen Gregory was Pokey's support team along to help  the star of the show. Thanks to Jeanne for taking this photo of Helen and I. This is what the set looks like when you walk in the room - big cameras and lots of cords. Challenge is not bumping into or tripping over anything.  

New Bernina 830 Launch

What excitement to actually be able to stitch on the new Bernina 830, the dream machine. Bernina has identified National Artisans and over the years we have suggested new features we would like to see in a machine. And here it is! Also check a new web site

dedicated to the 830 launch. 

http://www.berninausa8.com

February is my month in the Bernina Sew Red 2009 calendar supporting the American Heart Association. Last fall I blinged a Bernina! Imagine taking a wonderful sewing machine and embellishing it with treasures. Check out the calendar at your local

Bernina store. Red is one of my favorite colors so finding things to add to my bling-ing was easy. Hearts are also another favorite symbol, what could be better? I will be teaching at the Honeybee Quilters retreat in Jacksonville, FL for their quilt stampede, wear your cowgirl hat and boots was the request on their web page, come and be prepared to line dance. What a great opportunity to show off my wearing of the hat and boots by doing a photo transfer on a denim apron, decorated with red of course. 

Chartreuse Muse Reception

Chartreuse Muse opening reception, my quilts are on the back walls to minimize sunlight from the front west windows. Scroll down for more photos.

www.TheChartreuseMuse.com 

Porcella's quilts at Chartreuse Muse gallery

January 2, 2009 Modesto Bee newspaper had an announcement of the exhibit at Chartreuse Muse gallery opening on Monday. Such a nice way to start a new year, finding your photo in the Art Scene section of the paper.

http://www.modbee.com/scene/story/550852.html