Who is Nancy O'Bryant Puentes?
Public Servant: Prior to her career with Quilts, Inc., Nancy O'Bryant Puentes was the Press Secretary and Director of Information for two Attorneys General of Texas and Press Secretary for the successful campaign of a Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court. She was also an account executive with Bozell & Jacobs Advertising and Public Relations and had her own public relations firm, NP/PR.
She has been involved with the Quilts, Inc. shows, International Quilt Festival and International Quilt Market, since their inception, and was a co-director of the company's European shows, Patchwork & Quilt Expo, for nearly 20 years. She also helped to establish three other shows for the company, EmbellishmentTM, A Victorian RomanceTM, and Quilt! Knit! Stitch!
Award-Winner: Mrs. Puentes received the San Antonio Conservation Award for her work in preserving the history of Texas quilts and quiltmakers. Her first book won an award from the American Institute of Graphic Design. She received the Round Top Award “in recognition of leadership in reviving and sustaining interest in the American art of quilting.”
Leader: Mrs. Puentes is a co-founder of the International Quilt Association, a founding director of The Alliance for American Quilts, a founder of the Texas Quilt Association, and the founder of the Austin Area Quilt Guild.
Author: Mrs. Puentes has co-authored several quilting-related books, including the award-winning and widely acclaimed Lone Stars I: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1836-1936, and its sequels Lone Stars II: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1936-1986 and Lone Stars III: A Legacy of Texas Quilts 1986-2011; and Celebrate Great Quilts! She also wrote First Aid for Family Quilts, widely credited as the first and most authoritative book on the subject of quilt care for the layman. Mrs. Puentes is also the author of numerous articles about quilts for various periodicals.
Quiltmaker and Quilt Expert: Mrs. Puentes is a fifth-generation Texas quilter and an acknowledged expert on quilt conservation, preservation, and documentation. She coordinated the nation's first Quilt Conservation and Restoration Seminar, held in Houston in 1985. The event was the first to bring together professional textile conservators, museum textile curators, and quilt artists to establish a dialogue about the need for quilt and textile preservation. She is also Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Texas Quilt Museum, which opened in fall 2011 in La Grange, Texas and received prestigious awards, including the statewide Preservation Texas award, in its first year.
Historian: Mrs. Puentes was a director of the Texas Quilt Project, which documented the state's quilt heritage, and was one of the organizers of the Texas Quilt Search. The three-year search took her to 27 Texas cities and towns, documenting more than 3,500 quilts for the Texas Quilt Archives. It culminated with a showing of quilts in the rotunda of the Texas Capitol to celebrate the state's Sesquicentennial and to kick off a year's tour of museums for antique Texas quilts and of contemporary Texas quilts produced for the Great Texas Quilt Round-Up. A second phase of the Search took place and documented another 1,500 quilts.
In addition, she co-created the Boxes Under the BedTM project for The Alliance for American Quilts, which educated individuals about how to document and preserve their family quilts, as well as its accompanying oral history project, Quilters' SOS: Save Our Stories.
