For Megan Carter, quilting isn’t just a craft, it’s a way to stitch together her family’s history, one square at a time. At just 25 years old, Carter has taken on the ambitious task of preserving her family’s memories through handmade quilts, using old clothing, linens and fabric passed down through generations.
Sitting in her cozy home near Liberty, she sorts through a pile of carefully selected fabrics — her grandmother’s faded apron, pieces of her late uncle’s flannel shirts, even scraps from her mother’s old church dresses.
“Every piece tells a story,” Carter says, as she gently smooths out a square of floral fabric. “Some of these fabrics go back decades. My goal is to create something that my family can treasure forever.”
Carter’s love for quilting started as a child when she would watch her grandmother, Margie, meticulously piece together colorful patterns at her old wooden sewing machine. “She’d tell me that quilting wasn’t just about keeping warm, it was about remembering where we came from,” she recalls. “She made quilts for every big moment in our family’s life — weddings, new babies, even one for my cousin when he moved away for college.”
After Margie passed away a few years ago, Carter inherited her beloved Singer sewing machine, a machine that had been in the family for nearly half a century. At first, she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to create anything as beautiful as her grandmother’s work.
“I thought, ‘There’s no way I can do this’,” she admits with a laugh. “I nearly sewed my fingers together trying to learn.”
But determination, along with plenty of trial and error, helped her develop her own quilting style. Over the past year, Carter has worked tirelessly to complete her first big project — a memory quilt for her mother, Linda, incorporating fabrics from every major event in their family’s history.
“There are pieces from my mom’s wedding dress, my dad’s old work shirts, even a tiny patch from the baby blanket my grandma made for me,” she says. “It’s like holding our family’s history in my hands.”
Quilting has become more than just a creative outlet for Carter — it’s a way to stay connected to the past while creating something meaningful for the future. She hopes to make quilts for other family members, each one tailored to their own personal stories.
“I want my nieces and nephews to have something that reminds them of where they came from,” she explains. “Something to wrap around themselves when they need a little comfort.”
While many young people might be drawn to digital hobbies or fast-paced careers, she finds peace in the slow, deliberate work of quilting.
“There’s something so calming about it,” she says. “Sitting down with a cup of tea, stitching piece by piece, it’s a reminder that good things take time.”
Her mother, Linda, couldn’t be prouder.
“It’s amazing to see her take up this tradition,” she says. “I know my mom — her grandma — would be smiling if she could see this.”
Though Carter has no plans to sell her quilts, she hopes to continue the tradition for years to come, passing it down to the next generation just as her grandmother did. “Quilting is more than just sewing fabric together,” she says. “It’s about love, patience and holding on to the stories that make us who we are.”
