Photo Essay: The ‘Lost Art’ of the Tutwiler Quilters
"I love it. I really do," said Mary Willis Mackey, Quilt Director of the Tutwiler Quilters. "One day, I hope to travel around the state and teach all who want to learn how to quilt."
Photos by Vickie King
Mississippi Today“I love it. I really do,” said Mary Willis Mackey, Quilt Director of the Tutwiler Quilters. “One day, I hope to travel around the state and teach all who want to learn how to quilt.” Photo by Vickie King
It’s been a 32-year journey for Mary Willis Mackey, Quilt Director of the Tutwiler Quilters.
Mackey’s passion for quilting began in 1989, a year after Sister Maureen Delaney of the Sister of the Holy Name Order started the quilting program for women in the community to get out of the house, come together and make money.
It was a way for friends to get together and share stories, laughter, and of course, stitching. Once she started, Mackey caught the bug. She studied patterns and how to lay them out, working with cardboard cut-outs as her patch shapes before ever taking scissors to actual material. She taught herself how to use a sewing machine too.
“It’s a lost art and I want to keep it going,” said Mackey, who is passing the tradition down to her granddaughter. “She just came to me one day and said, ‘Grandma, I want to make a quilt.’ And that was it. She took right to it.”
“They’re really enthusiastic to learn,” Mackey said. “We usually run on past the time class is supposed to end because no one wants to stop. They all want to see that quilt take shape.”
Today, the Tutwiler Quilters program serves as a way for people, women especially, to learn a quilting style specific to the Delta and create art that they can use to support themselves.
“It takes patience though, and a lot of love,” Mackey said. “And I love it. I absolutely do. The learning is in the head, but you do it from the heart,” she said while storing away all manner of quilting materials donated by a woman who traveled with a friend from Iowa.
“One day, what I’d really like to do is get me a little bus or van, and travel around to communities all over the state and teach people how to quilt. Keep a long tradition going, Plus, it really is a whole lot of fun,” Mackey said.
Potholders created by the Tutwiler Quilters.
Backing of a music-themed quilt.
Local legend tells of W. C. Handy waiting on a train in Tutwiler to Memphis, when he heard a man playing, “Where the Southern Cross the Dog,” on a slide guitar. The song is a reference to the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad, called the Yellow Dog by locals, that crossed paths with the Southern Railway. And therein lies Tutwiler’s claim as the birthplace of the Blues.
Many towns and cities in the Delta claim they are the birthplace of the Blues. For Tutwiler, local legend tells of W. C. Handy waiting on a train to Memphis, when he heard a man playing “the strangest music he ever heard,” on a slide guitar.
“It’s a dying art. I want to teach as many people as I can,” said Mary Willis Mackey, Quilt Director of the Tutwiler Quilters.
“I love it. I really do,” said Mary Willis Mackey, Quilt Director of the Tutwiler Quilters, meticulously snipping loose threads from a quilt. “I want to keep the tradition alive.”
“I want to keep this tradition alive,” Mary Willis Mackey, Quilt Director of the Tutwiler Quilters.
“I studied what I could. Taught myself on the side about patterns, and how to use a sewing machine. I have to admit, I’m addicted to quilting. I love it,” said Mary Willis Mackey, Quilt Director of the Tutwiler Quilters.
“It takes patience, but it’s a lot of fun,” said Mary Willis Mackey, Tutwiler Quilt Director, as she touches up a few stitches on a music-themed quilt at the Tutwiler Community Education Center.
“I love it. I really do,” said Mary Willis Mackey, Quilt Director of the Tutwiler Quilters. “One day, I hope to travel around the state and teach all who want to learn how to quilt.”
Mackey can be found every Saturday morning at the Ruby Armstrong Brown Resource Center in Jonestown passing down her knowledge to a quilting class of nearly 80 ladies. Photos by Vickie King
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
