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TABLE OF CONTENTS |
A Guide to the McCrady (Kathleen H.) Quilt History Collection, 1890-2006
Creator's SketchKathleen 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. Return to the Table of Contents Scope and ContentsFeedsack samples, quilting patterns, manuscripts, newspaper and magazine clippings, calendars, photographs, quilting exhibit programs, and sewing notions document Kathleen McCrady's involvement in quilt making, quilt appraisal, and documentation of quilting history. The bulk of the McCrady collection is comprised of feedsack swatches, patterns newsclippings, and quilting notions, and related documents gathered by McCrady to document the history of American quilting for the Quilt History Study Hall. Including in the Quilt History Study Hall Records are accession cards and pictures of historic quilts, which are located at the Windale Center for the Quilt. The accession cards provide information about each quilt, including donor information, physical description, time period, date acquired, and provenance. Records of the Austin Area Quilt Guild include announcements, quilt show programs, workshop applications, membership rosters, and financial reports dating from 1979 to 2000 and document the groups' biennial quilt shows, conservation activities, workshops, and monthly meetings. "An Overview of a Quilter's Life (in Quilts): The Collection of Lora Mae McNeil" is a group of quilting memorabilia and quilting patterns. McCrady acquired the materials from 1999 from a friend of McNeil's son. The documents include McCrady's notes regarding a meeting between her and McNeil in 1999. Return to the Table of Contents RestrictionsAccess RestrictionsAccess to Negatives is restricted Return to the Table of Contents
Return to the Table of Contents Related Material
Return to the Table of Contents Administrative InformationPreferred CitationKathleen H. McCrady Quilt History Collection, 1890-2006, Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin Return to the Table of Contents Detailed Description of the Papers
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