Texas Quilts and Quilters - Kaylakie

Texas Quilts and Quilters:  A Lone Star Legacy.  By Marcia Kaylakie, with Janice Whittington, photography by Jim Lincoln, and foreword by Marian Ann J. Montgomery.  Lubbock:  Texas Tech University Press, 2007. Hardback with silver stamping on the spine and under dark blue cloth, and Mexican gold endpapers.  264 pages. 182 b&w and color photos, ports., 1 map, index, ISBN 0896726061, 978-0-89672-606-2, $39.95 (Grover E. Murray Studies in the American Southwest Series) http://www.ttup.ttu.edu/    An excellent investment.  You'll find yourself touching the 11x11 inch pages to feel the fabric and stiching.  This chronological presentation begins in the 1860's  and progresses through 32 named patterns with stories pulled from the towns across Texas.   A "Cattle Brand" quilt, sure, and a "Gone With the Wind" quilt, sure, but who could have imagined that the dirt and filth of the "Oil Field" could be converted into a bright quilt design; apparently Katherine Hervey did so in Fort Worth.  Maybe the most beautiful to me is Etta Mae Nelson Back's "Yo-Yo Quilt."  The gentle warmth, the deep cream and soft colors, and 1 ¼" squares arranged in the 30 multiply-bordered squares combine to evoke a sign and stroke a young boy could have had.    The "Rainbow Quilt" at the Gage Hotel is so striking, I'm tempted to allege they stole the one I once had, but, really, they didn't.   Allie Burkett's "Blue Lone Star Quilt" is memorable first for its blue theme, without the usual red splash, and now I notice the publishers' chose it for the jacket cover.  Good choice!  But, oh, the 2001 "Traveling Stars Quilt" also commands my attention, nothing bright, but the maroon, black, and rosy cream tied together and bordered by the concentric diamonds.   A 3 to 4 page narrative accompanies each of the quilts and once the festival of page-turning slows, you'll the reading worthwhile.