The Gone to Texas sample quilts in the Star Books booth at Quilt Market in HoustonBetsy Chutchian, known for her reproduction quilts, has a new book out called Gone to Texas: Quilts from a Pioneer Woman's Journal.
Betsy inherited some scrappy quilts from her great-grandmother and was inspired to recreate the look with reproduction fabrics. She also found a family diary, and she has translated this happy combination into a terrific book.
Betsy is a co-founder of the "19th-Century Patchwork Divas," a group that exchanges reproduction blocks. Their quilts were featured at several Quilt Festival venues this past year and a few are in Betsy's book. The group chooses an antique to reproduce, generates a pattern, and members make blocks for each other and the group. Their exchange set up is interesting ---and labor intensive---but it really sounds like fun. If, for example, six members decide to participate for a 36 block quilt, each is required to make six blocks for each of the other five members and a set for herself. Everybody winds up with a set of 36 blocks.
Click here to read more about the "19th-Century Patchwork Divas" at Suzanne Labry's webpage:
Click here to read more about the book at the Star Books webpage and see the sample pages: 
