VAM galleries including this work:
Museum of the American Quilter’s Society | Animal Farm | Young at Art || VAM Home

“This quilt is about what I imagine it would feel like to fly with a flock of migrating birds,” says Caryl Bryer Fallert. “Since they are birds of the imagination, they don’t represent any particular species.”

The center fabric was painted with fiber-reactive dye in an expressionistic design, incorporating the pure colors of light. The outer border fabric, also painted in fiber-reactive dyes, was painted in the greens, browns, and lavenders of earth. A third painted fabric in striated rainbow hues was used to make the center triangles in a variation on the traditional flying geese pattern. Top-stitching thread in many different colors was used for the freehand, free-motion quilting. The center painted fabric is quilted in patterns of sky and wind. With the exception of the bird outlines, all of the machine quilting was done freehand, with no marking. Fallert created the geese shapes on the computer, modifying scans of bird photos.

This quilt won the Best of Show Award at the 1995 American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show and Contest.

About the Artist

Internationally recognized for her art quilts, Caryl Bryer Fallert is noted for her colors and multi-level illusions of light and motion. Her attention to detail also has earned her a reputation for craftsmanship. She has been a leader in the use of computer software for quilt design.

Fallert was born in Elgin, Illinois. She graduated with a B.A. from Wheaton College in 1969 and studied art at Illinois State University, the College of DuPage, and the University of Wisconsin. She has won numerous awards, and her work is on display in collections around the world. She is best known for her organic, curved-seam designs. Her quilt Corona #2: Solar Eclipse was voted one of the 100 best quilts of the 20th century.

Classroom Ideas

Discussion: Describe how Fallert uses color, quilting stitches, and pattern to depict movement in this quilt. What shape is repeated throughout the quilt to create movement? Identify the “flying geese” pattern on the quilt.

Activity: Work with the school technology coordinator to create quilt designs using a computer. Host a “virtual exhibit” of these designs.

Links

Extensive information about Caryl Bryer Fallert, her quilts, and how she works can be found at her web site, Bryerpatch Studio.
[www.bryerpatch.com]

View and read about Fallert’s quilt Corona II: Solar Eclipse at the PBS companion web site to A Century of Quilts.
[www.pbs.org/americaquilts/century/canvas/caryl_bryer_fallert.html]