Design concept

original pencil sketch

This is one of a series of quilts inspired by a close-up view of a feather. This quilt is a fantasy feather that grew out of a series of hundreds of drawings on this theme. The composition uses three sets of intersecting color gradations. The Fuschia to purple gradation forms the background for the feather. The highlights on the feather are a gradation of oranges from yellow to fuschia. The feather itself is cut from an eight foot piece of fabric which was painted in a gradation from yellow to turquoise to purple. The spiky, pieced center spine continues the theme of intersecting color gradations. All of the colors used in this quilt are fully saturated, so the light occurs in the areas of the warm golden yellows and greens.

The machine quilting was done with many different colors of Madeira Poly-Neon thread. The feather is quilted in freeform organic patterns, and the background is quilted with an overall black meander pattern.

The back of the quilt is a single hand painted fabric in rainbow colors.

Exhibitions:

• Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, (juried) Feb. 23-27, 2000, Williamsburg Marriott Hotel, Williamsburg, VA (First Place - Best use of Color)
• American Quilters Society Show & Contest, April 12-16, 2000  (First Place-Wall Quilt Professional)
• Art Quilts: Contemporary Art Forms from Traditional Origins, Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, IA  (invitational)
• Caryl Bryer Fallert: A Sense of Wonder, solo exhibition at the Burlington Arts Center, Burlington, ON, Canada, Feb. 28- Mar.30. 2001 info@BurlingtonArtCentre.on.ca

Publications

• American Quilter Magazine, Fall, 2000, p. 40
• Quilters Newsletter Magazine, June 2000, p.