I'm torn on the issue...

On the one side, yes, there is a state tartan already. The issue is, THAT state tartan (Texas Blue Bonnet) is controlled by 1 entity in TX as well (store named Scotland Forever who are very nice folks in their own right). So if you, as a store owner, don't have access to your state tartan based on copyright issues, what would you do other than create your own (competing) state tartan?

Agreed that some color symbolism in tartans can get a bit corny, but having designed a few tartans myself, I pose this question: Which is "cornier", creating a tartan based on colors that may mean something to the intended buyer / wearer OR designing / naming a tartan and for the explanation of colors adding "A design I thought was pretty, so that's the one I chose"? In order for people to "connect" with a tartan, there has to be some meaning other than "it looks pretty" or just b/c someone NAMED it something.

All that being said, I agree with Matt on the fact that all states have "red white and blue" in their flags and that would be very limiting in making up state tartan colors. As well, I'm not a fan of this particular design, though from a business perspective, I do understand why she did it. I just give the design itself a 'miss'.