About MQA

MQA is one of the most well-organized state quilting associations in the country. We have 3 gatherings a year, plus an educational seminar with a nationally-known teacher. Fall and Spring gatherings include demos and programs you can take back to your guild, and in June we have day-long workshops in Pearl where our own teachers lead classes to improve our skill repertoire.

Quilted MQA Logo from Martha Ginn's album quilt, This is My Story, This is My Song, 1994, 84" x 100". Used by permission

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For more information about MQA, please contact any of the officers, who are more than willing to tell you about our great organization!

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Pamela McRae

Martha Skelton: Master Quilter of Mississippi,
being published by the Mississippi Quilt Association in collaboration with the University Press of Mississippi , begins with these words by the author Mary Elizabeth Johnson :

"If the United States had a program to name working artists as National Treasures, Martha Skelton would undoubtedly be included."

This book chronicles Martha's life and her continuing love affair with quilting. The book contains a foreword by Walt Grayson, more than 90 color photos of Martha's quilts. family pictures, a list of the shows Martha's quilts have appeared in and the honors which she and her and her work have received. The book will be off the press in late May 2008 and will be widely available through bookstores, on the internet, and from the University Press of Mississippi

From Linda Jabour:

This title was chosen by the University Press editors to reflect their emphasis on publishing books related to Mississippi. The book committee agrees that it is a good title. We feel confident to announce that the book's projected arrival is on schedule. We do not know at this point exactly how many pages the book will contain, but we do know that it will be hard back with a dust jacket, will measure nine inches by nine inches, and will sell for approximately $35. Mary Elizabeth Johnson has done an excellent job of capturing the essence of Martha's life and work, and we think readers will find it not only beautiful but exciting. The book contains approximately 93 color photos with captions of Martha's quilts (Some are details, so the total number of quilts is a little less than the number just quoted.) It also contains approximately 20 family photos of Martha from the time she was a little girl until recently. It also includes a list of shows Martha's quilts have appeared in, a list of major donors to the book, a bibliography and an index. MQA members will receive in the mail, some time before the book comes out, an offer to purchase books at a discount. Based on past experience, we believe this discount will be 20 percent. You may purchase as many copies at this discounted price as you would like to buy, but it will be a one-time offer available only to current MQA members. (Current members during the 2007 MQA fiscal year.)
So we urge you to pay attention when you receive this University Press mail out and not throw it away by mistake.

There is no way to estimate the incredible number of hours which have gone into this major project to develop this book---starting with the initial documentation research, to the amateur photo documentation session, to securing our author, to the later professional photo session, and then working with the publisher addressing many important final details. These people who worked so diligently are to be commended. They devoted their time and energies out of respect for Martha, her work and the belief that the world should have an opportunity to know and appreciate Martha as we in MQA do.

There will be a celebration party and book signing event when the book comes out.
A great many factors can affect the actual arrival of the book. Therefore, a date cannot be set for this celebration this far in advance. However, we do expect it to be held in Vicksburg, and you will receive notice well in advance of the event, probably late spring or early summer. We anticipate providing more detailed information at the 2008 Spring Gathering in Natchez. As we have stated a number of times before, the process of publishing a book of this magnitude is a slow and lengthy process. When you see the book, we believe you will agree that it was well worth the wait.

Martha Skelton

A Mississippi Quilting Legend 

Martha Skelton was born in the state of Oklahoma and grew up in an extended family that included her maternal grandmother and an aunt, who, in addition to quilting, practiced many other fabric arts. Her first quilt, started when she was fifteen years old, was a little six-pointed star, set with muslin. The textile arts were an ingrained part of daily life to Martha’s upbringing, and so it seemed natural to her to continue quilting, even as she moved to Mississippi in 1947 where she knew of no one else who shared her interest.

Martha was delighted when the “quilt revival” began in the 1970s because she finally had the opportunity of helping others learn the craft she had loved her whole life. Martha’s teaching reaches far beyond the borders of Mississippi; she has taught in Alabama, Florida, and Texas. She initiated the Mississippi State Fair’s first quilting bee in the early 1980s, at the request of then Agricultural Commissioner Jim Buck Ross, and coordinated the quilting bee for thirteen years. A true highlight in an event-filled life was being the featured quilter at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folk Art in 1974. She returned as a featured quilter to the festival in 1997.

Martha Skelton’s quilts hang in the permanent collections of the American Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky, in the Mountain Mist Collection in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson, Mississippi. Her quilts have traveled to the Netherlands, Germany, and Japan. Her work has been published in many quilt books and magazines, and she has been featured on numerous television shows and countless newspaper articles. When asked to name which, of all the awards and recognition she has received, was the most meaningful to her, she couldn’t single one out as most special. Instead she said, “I’ve taught a lot of people.”

Because Martha Skelton has been such an influence on so many of the state’s quilters,  she could be considered the benevolent spirit of quilt making in Mississippi. In fact, it has been said that she is responsible for the survival of quilting in the state. . . .

(Excerpts taken from Mississippi Quilts, by Mary Elizabeth Johnson, University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, 2001, pp. 186-89.)