The Quilt Show ran into Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry at her exhibit, Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry: A Life In Color, at the National Quilt Museum this weekend as part of the festivities for the 2025 edition of the Paducah Quilt Show. While there, she showed us two of her firsts, her very first quilt, and her first art quilt. See both of these quilts as they were hung in the exhibit and chart the journey she took from her beginnings to now.

The first quilt Caryl shared with us was her very first quilt, Rail Fence: My First Quilt, which she made in 1976 with 5/8" seam allowances. See the quilt below and get the story behind a great quilter's first work.

The second first that Caryl showed us was her first art quilt, Red Poppies, made in 1983. In additon to being her first art quilt, it established many other firsts in her quilting career, being the first quilt she used curved seams in, the first quilt she entered into a show, her first quilt to win a national award, and her first quilt to be publsihed. See it below the photos of her Rail Fence quilt, along with the proud artist standing in front of one of her many outstanding creattions.

Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry: A Life In Color​ is on display at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky, now through October 7, 2025.

Click Here to learn more about the exhibit.

Learn from Caryl right here at The Quilt Show by watching her in How to Do Applipiecing and a Studio Visit with Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry.

Rail Fence: My First Quilt by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry

Rail Fence: My First Quilt by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry - Detail 1

Rail Fence: My First Quilt by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry - Detail 2

Rail Fence: My First Quilt by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry - Exhibit Sign

Red Poppies by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry

Red Poppies by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry - Detail 1

Red Poppies by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry - Detail 2

Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry with her quilt, Red Poppies

Red Poppies by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry - Sign