Blizzard
Printable version

• Copyright © 1989 Caryl Bryer Fallert
• Size: 40" x 90" triptych
• Techniques: Hand dyed, machine pieced, and quilted
• Materials: 100% cotton fabric/ batting: 100% wool
• Price: $2000.00

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More information and details below

Design Concept

Click on details for larger images original sketches back corner detail

The first year we lived in our 1879 farmhouse in Northern Illinois we had nine feet of snow. The temperature fell as low as 34 degrees below zero. The snow granulated and blew into huge drifts, even covering some of our buildings. When the Winter sun came out, all of the shadows were turquoise. This quilt is a visual expression of the winter snows on the flat open prairies of Northern Illinois. This is also one of a series of quilts in which three dimensional, constructed tucks are incorporated into a pieced background. The fabrics used to piece the background were hand dyed in value (light to dark) gradations of blue and turquoise. The swirling pieced background expresses the idea of the granulated snow, being blown into drifts and dunes in the open fields for days after it falls. The turquoise and blue are the colors of the shadows on the snow drifts, after the sun comes out. The twisting of the tucks, from side to side, and the use of graduated values, creates the illusion of movement, as in the falling and blowing of the snow, during the storm. The design started with pen and ink sketches for the swirling design of the background. The background was pieced and then cut into strips. The strips were sewn back together with a separately constructed tuck in each seam allowance. Borders of blue and turquoise followed by a pale turquoise binding finish each panel. My use of a traditional quilt block (Grandmother's Flower Garden) on the back of this contemporary art quilt is my tribute to the many anonymous quilt artists of the past. I chose a hexagonal design to echo the geometric structure of snow flakes.

Exhibitions and Awards:

• SURFACE AND SUBSTANCE, 1989, The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA
• ROCKLAND QUILT FESTIVAL, 1989 (invitational) Suffern, NY
• PERSONAL LANDSCAPES, FACET Group traveling exhibition, 1990-91, (Venues across the USA)
• 42nd ANNUAL, QUAD STATE, JURIED ART EXHIBITION, 1992, Quincy Art Center, Quincy, IL
• CONTEMPORARY QUILTMAKING, 1992, (invitational) N. Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY

• THE ARTISANS ART, Barrington Area Arts Council Gallery , 1993, (invitational) Barrington, IL
• SPECTRUM: THE TEXTILE ART OF CARYL BRYER FALLERT, Traveling Solo Exhibition, Illinois Art Gallery, Chicago, IL, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL, American Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA, Dunedin Fine Art Center, Dunedin FL, New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, MA 
• Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture & Design, Invitational Exhibition, January-February, 2001
• QUILTFEST USA: INVITATIONAL EXHIBIT, August,1993 , Louisville, KY
• ART QUILT INTERNATIONAL '94, Penny Nii Gallery, (invitational) Mountain View, CA
• Solo Exhibition: Little White School Musuem, 1993, Oswego, IL
• "Evolving Styles - 20 Years of Color & Design"
  Solo Exhibition: LaConner Quilt Museum, LaConner WA, March 16 - May 15, 2005
• Caryl Bryer Fallert: A Retrospective, New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, MA, August 20 - October 31, 2015
• Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry: 40 Years of Color, Light, & Motion
  • Mitchell Museum, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mt. Vernon, IL, July 31-October 9, 2016
  • Nixon Centre for Performing & Visual Arts, Newnan, GA January 9 - February 17, 2017
  • Texas Quilt Museum, La Grange, TX • March 30 - June 25, 2017
• Color, Light, & Motion: Fine Art Quilts by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry, Art at the Old Alcohol Plant Gallery, Port Hadlock, WA, July 8-August 26, 2018
• The Big Chill, Fiber Habit Window, Port Townsend, WA, January-February, 2024

Publications

• QUILTERS NEWSLETTER MAGAZINE, Nov/Dec 1989, p.10
• CARYL BRYER FALLERT: A SPECTRUM OF QUILTS, 1983-1995, 1996, AQS Books, pp. 58,59