108 Year-Old Had a Thriving Quilting Business
Story originally published on Local 12 (Mapleton, N.D. — WDAY TV/CNN Newsource/WKRC in 2016).
Myrtle Farrell, from Mapleton, North Dakota, was 106 years old and had made over 300 quilts in the three years prior to 2016.
She grew up on a small farm in Cass County, where she had lived her entire life. She learned the importance of a good work ethic from her parents, and married her husband during the depression. Over the years, she babysat children for most of the town, and for decades, she had been known as the “Quilt Maker.”
She was still quilting at the age of 106 with a business of making baby quilts. Myrtle may have been the oldest businesswoman in North Dakota, sewing beautiful quilts and selling them even as a centurian. When she was 106, she moved in with her neighbors rather than moving into a nursing home, and there she was able to create quilts by the hundreds.
Her former neighbor and roommate, Jean Madsen, said that she credits Myrtle’s upbringing for her passion for quilting even in her old age. Jean shared that she thinks it was her lifestyle growing up. She grew up on a small farm, her parents rented and worked hard for a living, and It was important for her to be productive.
She learned to sew from her mother.
“That’s the way kids learned years ago,” she once said.
Her quilts would fetch a good price for charity. One, for example, sold for $200, with those funds benefiting Community of Care, a nonprofit in Casselton. Another brought $210 and benefited a war memorial in a Casselton cemetery.
The story here was shared from several stories posted in 2014 and 2016. Myrtle Ferrell passed away on July 21, 2017 at the age of 108.
May Myrtle’s story inspire all of us creative souls to remain active at our crafts, to love what we do for ourselves and others, and give to the joy of others. This is, no doubt, what I believe, contributed to Myrtle’s longevity.
