Creating for love: Red Bay woman enjoys her craft
FRANKLIN LIVING—
For Red Bay resident Margie Upton, hours spent quilting and crocheting is time well spent. While she has shown her work, sold or given it away, the time spent creating is what she said is the most rewarding – time that’s uniquely relaxing and satisfying.
Upton, a Franklin County native who grew up in Atwood, said she’s been making quilts for around the last 10 or 12 years. Though she was around quilting growing up, she didn’t get it into it herself until much later, and she taught herself how to do it.
“My mother, Gertrude Taylor Davidson, made all the quilts at home,” she explained. “I got into quilting after my husband was given an old quilt top that belonged to his grandmother.” Upton said she took the quilt apart and reassembled it to make it more precise so the design would work better. “I got all of the squares even, and I put it back together, and that was the first quilt I quilted. I wasn’t really thinking about getting into quilting before that,” she added. “I realized I enjoyed the process, and I kept going with it, adding more projects over the years.”
Upton’s sister Shirley Davidson Hindman, who lives in Russellville, gave her a pattern that a woman had given her years before. “I started out with that one next.”
Her next project was also inspired by a sister. “My sister who passed away around 30 years ago, Shelby Davidson Oliver – she painted all of her quilts, and she was doing a United States quilt, but she passed away before it was finished,” Upton explained. She and Hindman took it upon themselves to finish what she had started. “When my other sister and I got the quilt from my niece, we couldn’t figure it out at first, but when we finally got it figured out, everything went perfectly, and I embroidered the hexagons that she didn’t have painted. We finished that quilt and kept it for a few years before giving it to her granddaughter for graduation.”
Upton said she enjoys the variety of creating different types of quilts.
“We have made probably three more United States quilts from that pattern,” Upton said, “and I’ve just been going ever since.” Other quilts she has made include a “grandma’s flower garden,” which involves using random blocks and putting them together, embroidering them and quilting them. “I gave them to my nieces and nephews.”
She said she’s not sure just how many quilts she has made over the years. “I gave four away, and my sister and I did the three United States quilts together, and I’ve done three of the grandma’s flower garden quilts and a patriotic quilt,” she said. “I helped my sister do some quilting for her grandkids, too.”
For Upton, quilting is a hobby that brings relaxation and happiness. “I’ve just gotten through embroidering 35 blocks of the patriotic quilt ‘Stand with America,’” she said. “I’ve got it ready to strip and put together as a top and quilt anytime I have the time to work on it.”
Upton said the time spent on an individual quilt varies according to the project. “It probably took six or seven months for me to make the cathedral window quilt,” she said. “As far as the patriotic quilt and getting it put together, I could sit down and quilt that in less than a month if I just really took the time to sit down and do it.”
She said she’s “always doing something.” “I’ll go and buy pillowcases when I’ve got nothing to do, and I’ll put appliqués on them, and I will embroider them for Christmas gifts or something of that nature,” Upton said. “I still embroider decorative table pieces, and I have a tablecloth I crocheted. I have done lots of crocheted afghans and baby blankets.”
When she needs a different project to work on, crochet often provides just the thing. “On occasion, someone will ask if I’ve got a baby blanket,” she added. “The last big afghan I did, I sent it to the safe house up at Florence.”
Upton said she’s been enjoying working with a bag of thread a woman gave her recently.
“I’ve just been sitting and piddling with that, you know, and I thought I could make a little blanket or something out of the thread – but I’ve done lots of afghans, mostly given to family.
She said her quilting and sewing projects are “so relaxing,” noting she’s a person who “has to be doing something, working with my hands.”
Upton said she has been sewing since she was “big enough to set up my mother’s treadle sewing machine.” “I made my own clothes up until just a few years ago, and I still have a few pieces that I’ve made.”
She said her mother didn’t need a pattern; Upton would just come home from school sometimes to find a dress laying on the bed, ready to try on. “It just came to her naturally, and all three of us girls, we’ve all sold and made our clothes. We learned a lot of it from home economics in school.”
While sewing is her hobby, she also used the skills for a career. “I worked in garment factories from the time I was out of high school until I retired a few years ago, and I’ve always sewed all my life,” she said. “With other sewing, even when I was at home growing up, I made doll clothes, and I just loved watching my aunt.” Upton said her aunt helped her a lot in getting started with crochet and other projects, though she picked up the quilting on her own.
While working at Golden Manufacturing, she had five or six friends who enjoyed working on crafts together, and they called themselves “the Golden Girls.” “That was really fun,” she recalled.
The reason she keeps sewing and doing her other handiwork is simple: “It is just my happy place.”
