Finishing Yvonne Porcella's Quilt

Many of you know that SAQA founder, Yvonne Porcella, was recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

We put out a call on the SAQA online list, as well as the quiltart list and a few other places, for quilt artists to construct blocks (ala Yvonne-style) in increments of 5-inches, and send them to Jamie Fingal and myself.  We hoped to receive enough blocks to construct a quilt for her, and we laid-out an ambitious plan to construct the blocks and finish the quilt in time to take it to her during the time we were in San Francisco for the SAQA/SDA conference.  

Blocks poured in from all over the world!  It was truly stunning.  I put together 2 large panels of blocks,

Jamie did the same (along with some help from some SAQA quilters of Orange CA).  I shipped my panels to Jamie ahead of me, and when I arrived at her house last Monday we set to work.

We constructed more blocks to fill in and even out the sections, then joined the sections together:

Working on Yvonne's quilt in Jamie's studio

working with a large quilt becomes quite challenging,

as many of you know all-too-well

The final two sections are joined together.

We rolled up the sections and Jamie held them up while I stitched, first in front of me, then behind!

Here is most of the quilt:  too large to adequately photograph in her studio

(and it was very late at night).  We are still in need of a better photo of the entire piece

Finished size:  84 inches wide by 104 inches long!

Here is the folded quilt before we put it in the tote bag for travel.

I'll post additional photos of the quilt, as well as shots of presenting it to Yvonne, as soon as I can.

I wanted to get these up so many of you who have been waiting to see the finished piece could take a look.  Thank you so much!  It is truly a labor of love, and a joy to put together.