106-Year-Old Has a Thriving Quilting Business

Story originally published on Local 12 (Mapleton, N.D. -- WDAY TV/CNN Newsource/WKRC).

Myrtle Farrell, from Mapleton, North Dakota, is 106 years old and has made over 300 quilts in the last three years.

She grew up on a small farm in Cass County, where she has lived her whole life. She learned the importance of 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 has been known as the "Quilt Maker."

She's still quilting today as a business of making baby quilts. Myrtle may be the oldest businesswoman in North Dakota, sewing beautiful quilts and selling them still. She recently moved in with her neighbors rather than moving to a nursing home, and there she has created quilts by the hundreds.

Her former neighbor and now roommate, Jean Madsen, said that she credits Myrtle's upbringing with her passion for quilting even in her old age. "I think it is her lifestyle. She grew up on a small farm, her parents rented and worked hard for a living. It's important for her to be productive," she said.