Kathleen McCrady is a nationally recognized quilt maker and quilt historian. Born Kathleen Holland in 1925 to tenant farmers, McCrady spent much of her childhood in rural Texas and Oklahoma. She married Jesse (Jack) McCrady on December 24, 1942 when she was a senior in high school. During World War II, McCrady moved back to Texas. She and her family lived throughout Texas, except for a brief stint in Kansas from 1961 to 1962. McCrady worked for the Austin Independant School District until her retirement in 1987.

Quilting has always been a part of Kathleen McCrady's life. During her childhood, her mother and maternal grandmother made quilts to cover beds. McCrady's mother taught her to sew as a child. Her mother-in-law and her mother were also avid quilt makers. In the late seventies, McCrady became active in the Austin Area Stitchery Guild and a subgroup, the Nitestitchers, who met informally on Sundays to socialize and quilt. In 1979, McCrady became a charter member of the Austin Area Quilt Guild. She has held various positions in the guild including President (1980), Bee Coordinator (1981), Historian (1985), Ad Hoc Committee Chair for Quilting Shows (1993) and Conservation Chair (2000). Kathleen McCrady also taught quilting classes and workshops. Her classes took place both in her home and in the form of a traveling workshop. In 1995, she established the Quilt History Study Hall and offered classes on quilt history, restoration, and conservation using her extensive collections of quilts, fabrics, ephemera. Several of McCrady's quilts have won several awards and been shown in exhibitions and magazines.