About Us

Betty Cotton is a quilting entrepreneur and inventor who is living her dream. She owns Camp Cotton Quilting Retreat and the Quilt Yard in Osseo, holds a patent on the unique Cotton Theory method of quilting and spends her days doing what she loves.

Much of her work focuses on Cotton Theory quilting, a Quilt First-Then Assemble™ method of quilting she invented in 2001 and received a patent on in 2004. Using Cotton Theory techniques, Betty has created many patterns for reversible projects that can be quilted piece by piece and then assembled, without the need to do handwork or to use a long-arm quilting machine.

Betty sells her patterns worldwide and is the author of a book series featuring Cotton Theory Quilting. She stars in a Cotton Theory instructional DVD and is a featured speaker at meetings and conventions throughout the United States. She has appeared on the television programs Sewing With Nancy, America Quilts Creatively and Kay's Quilting Friends.

Sewing and quilting have been a part of Betty's life since childhood. As a teenager, she worked in a fabric store in Chicago. After moving to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, she designed, sewed, and sold soft-sculpture dolls, eventually turning her venture into a wholesale country giftware business called Something Old-Something New. In 1996, she opened a retail quilt shop, the Quilt Yard, in the tiny community of Foster, Wisconsin, south of Eau Claire. After outgrowing that facility, Betty moved the Quilt Yard several miles down the road to its current location in Osseo, Wisconsin, in 1999.

The Quilt Yard carries thousands of bolts of fabric, along with numerous kits, patterns, books, accessories and gift items. The west-central Wisconsin shop is located off Interstate 94 and Highway 53 in Osseo.

People often wonder about Betty Cotton's last name. Is it real? Did she make it up? No, she didn't make it up. In August 2001, Betty married Jack Cotton, and his name became hers. It's just a happy coincidence that the name is very fitting in the quilting industry.

Jack and Betty live in Eau Claire, just north of Osseo. Jack manages the Quilt Yard and helps with other aspects of the business so that Betty has time to work on designs and new projects.

Visitors are always welcome at the Quilt Yard, where the motto is "Because nice matters."

- Betty & Jack Cotton

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