Over the weekend, the quilt world lost a visionary, Yvonne Porcella. I do not remember when I first met Yvonne in person. I know her influence came into my life back in the early 1980s with her book Pieced Clothing. I came to quilting from a garment/sewing background and still dabbled in garments even though quilting had taken over my life. Her book was all about how to used patchwork and pieced techniques to construct garments. The garments were not fitted; all the pieces were cut from rectangles and had their roots in folk clothing. I went onto make vests and jackets for myself in this fashion. Eventually, this concept formed the basis for the commissioned garments I made for others. Over the years I followed what she created, both her own work and the Studio Art Quilt Associates that she founded. We chatted in Houston when we were both there. I learned that my pronunciation of almond did not match with hers, and she was, after all, an almond grower.

Fast forward to 2014. I remember having a conversation with Yvonne at the SAQA Conference in Alexandria, Va. I gave the keynote address and talked about how important it was to know your why. Yvonne came to share with me details of her upcoming book Defining Why. What struck me over this weekend as I looked at the tributes that poured in was the gifts she shared and received. It really was all about love.

Here is a shot of me with Iris Karp of Mistyfuse and Yvonne taken at Quilt Market in 2014.

To learn more about Yvonne, the Quilt Show has its legend show on Yvonne free for the rest of the month. To access it click here. In the meanwhile, maybe you have memories about Yvonne Porcella from the Quilt Show, or a  another tribute about the books she has written. Feel free to leave them on our on our ICAP Facebook or Google+ pages?