| For a complete tutorial slide show (18M PDF) about how this quilt was designed and made CLICK HERE. |
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Design Concept
For many years
birds have been a recurring theme in my work. At one point I began
focusing on the patterns within a single feather, and the patterns
created when feathers overlap. I have made hundreds of sketches/doodles
using these patterns as a launch-pad for my imagination. Many
of these flights of fantasy go far beyond anything that could
be found in a real bird, but they still reflect patterns found
in nature, both in birds and in plants. During the last eight
years, I have made a series of quilts based on the most interesting
of these raw sketches. This is the thirtieth quilt in the series.
The fabrics for this quilt were hand dyed and painted in gradations
of color and value. The juxtaposition of intersecting gradations
creates the illusion that the feathers are lit from within, rather
than from an outside source. The machine quilting was done freehand
with many different colors of thread.
Process:
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Original doodle
The design started with a small pencil sketch on paper. I
scanned the sketch into the computer played with the proportions.
I tried the whole design as a rectangle, and liked that better.
I did a value studio in shades of grey. Then I did a full
color study (below).
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To
make a full size drawing I used an overhead projector to project
the line drawing onto freezer paper which was hung on the wall.
I drew the basic outlines with pencil and then spent several days
refining the big drawing and adding all of the information I was
going to need to piece it together. Several days later, the completed
big drawing was on my work wall (below). I got out my painted fabrics
and my hand dyed gradations, and began laying out the colors I would
use.
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I cut a large chunk out of the drawing and then cut apart the individual
templates within that chunk. Each individual template in a series
was ironed to successive colors in a gradation. I cut them out with
seam allowances, and laid them in order on my work table. I cut the
next set of templates from multi-colored, painted fabrics and stitched
those pieces to the solid color templates, and so on. |
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When
I finished piecing the first chunk it went back on the wall. I cut
the next chunk and contunued piecing the sections together until
the top was completed.
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This quilt received the $5000.00 Fairfield Master Award for Contemporary
Artistry at the 2007 International Quilt Festival in Houston Texas,
and the Best Machine Workmanship Award (wall quilts) in the 2009
American Quilters Society Show, Paducah KY.
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Here the batting and backing have been added and it
is being quilted.
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Exhibitions:
- Asheville, NC, Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Jan.
18th through May 11th, 2014
- American
Quilters Society Show 2009, Paducah KY.
Machine Workmanship Award - Wall Quilts
- International Quilt Association
Show, 2007 International Quilt Festival, George Brown Convention
Center, Houston TX Master Award for Contemporary
Artistry
- Quilts by Caryl Bryer
Fallert, (solo exhibition) Gallery I: Opal Frey Gallery, Rocky
Mountain Quilt Museum, July 17–August 11, 2007
- Give
& Take: International Quilt Study Center, Robert Hillestad
Textiles Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE. February
5 - March 2 2007
and The
Riffe Gallery, Q, 77 S. High Street, Columbus, OH 43215 May
3- July 8, 2007
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Publications:
- 500 Art Quilts, Lark, 2010, p 295
- Arte Patchwork, (Spain) December 2009, p. 10
- The Daily Sentinel (Denver CO) Sunday July 22, 2007, p. 2C
- Quilts Inc. wall calendar 2008 (cover)
- AQS wall calendar, 2009
- The Daily Sentinel (Denver CO) Sunday July 22, 2007, p. 2C
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Web Site Design by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry © 1997-2022
All Rights Reserved
Bryerpatch Studio • 10 Baycliff Place • Port Townsend, WA • 98368 • USA
360-385-2568 • caryl@bryerpatch.com
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Updated
8/12/18
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