For many years, I have admired the brilliance of Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry’s quilts. Her work is outstanding in so many ways including her color choices, the pleasing shapes and curves she develops in her designs and the precision and excellence with the quilts are pieced, appliqued and quilted. I was excited to see Caryl’s special exhibit “Celebrating 30 Years of Color and Light – New Works by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry, and I enjoyed talking to her. The 30 new quilts revisit many of the themes of her past award-winning work and introduce new themes. All of them were made with fabric from the various collections she has designed for Benartex, based on her original hand-dyed and painted fabrics.

Here’s Caryl at the exhibit. She made “Leap” after committing to a new partner and to spending half her time in the Pacific Northwest. This was exciting but also a leap of faith into the great unknown. Caryl says in the quilt description, “A picture of my great-niece Marie, jumping over a puddle, provided the perfect image to portray my mixed feelings of fear and exhilaration.”

“Feathers in the Wind #2” arose from a series of drawings of fantasy feathers. The value placement of fabric in the plumes of the feathers creates the illusion that they are lit from within. “Fibonacci Series #13” was made from strips cut in widths to finish in the Fibonacci proportions, (1, 2, 3, 5), when sewn together. These were then counter-cut in the same proportions and every other strip was rotated by 180 degrees.

“Spirogyra #4” was inspired by a small clipping from a magazine showing the image of spirogyra through a microscope. This is the fourth spirogyra quilt in which the patterns of dots and curving stripes appearing the in the microscopic view of these filamentous algae are explored. The design for “Lepidopteran #3” evolved from a series of sketches of a leaf which was similar in many ways to the patterns on the wings of a butterfly.

My photos don’t do these quilts the justice they deserve, but they should at least give you a taste. I imagine this exhibit will travel, so do go and see it if you can.