volunteers

Pillowcases and socks make the season bright

pillowcasesMembers of Coffee Creek Quilters donated 216 colorful hand-made pillowcases this holiday season to the Sleep Country Mattress Stores’ program to help local foster kids. Nearly 20,000 children in the Northwest are in foster care at any given time, often entering the system with few to no possessions. Sleep Country collects pillowcases, pajamas, toys and cash to help kids going through a difficult time. For more information about the Sleep Country program, check out their website.

Women incarcerated at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility also entered into the spirit of the holidays with their 8th annual sock drive to help homeless families. The Eyeglass and Hair Design programs at CCCF organize this effort and achieved their goal of 6,000 pairs of socks this year.  The socks are being delivered to four organizations in the Portland metro area: 1) Good Neighbor Center, a Tigard homeless shelter; 2) Loaves and Fishes, which provides meals and assistance to home-bound seniors; 3) P:ear, an organization that helps homeless teens; and 4) Father’s Heart Street Ministry, which helps the homeless living on the streets in Multnomah and Clackamas Counties.

CCQ instructors enter juried quilt shows

instructor quiltsCCQ instructors are a talented bunch with a wide variety of skills and interests. Two of our instructors are art quilters who have entered their work in juried quilt shows. This means that a panel of judges critiques the quilts for technical excellence as well as creativity. Prizes are awarded in different categories.

Deb Sorem entered her “Under the Autumn Canopy” quilt in the 2013 Pacific West Quilt Show in Tacoma, Washington. Sun, sky and leaf motifs are represented with intricate curved piecing and free motion quilting. Deb works to abstract an image or a theme; in this one, she started with a photo taken looking up through the fall leaves on a tree. The quilt measures 41″ x 30″.

Sherri Culver’s entry in the 2013 International Quilt Festival/Houston show is titled “Emmy Tovo” and won third place in the Art-People, Portraits, and Figures category. When making a portrait quilt, Sherri starts with a photograph which she manipulates in PhotoShop. Sherri’s technique involves hundreds of tiny pieces of fabric that she appliques with a narrow satin stitch. Sherri’s quilt measures 29″ x 21″. You might want to visit her website to see pictures of more of her amazing quilts.

CCQ members make quilts for Quilters play

Quilters playThree CCQ members volunteered their quilting skills to design and construct quilts for a production of the play Quilters, which is being performed at McMinnville’s Gallery Theater this month. Peggy Gelbrich, an instructor in our Tuesday morning class, designed the quilts shown at left and coordinated the efforts of a group of quilters to make the quilts. Peggy also designed another quilt to be raffled for fundraising. Bobbie Bebereia, a CCQ board member, did the longarm quilting on the quilts in the show and the raffle quilt. And Donna Gilbo, a CCQ member who works behind the scenes assembling kits for our students, worked behind the scenes for the Quilters play too, helping make the raffle quilt on a short deadline.

Quilters is the story of a pioneer woman and her six daughters. It blends a series of interrelated scenes into a mosaic, capturing the sweep and beauty, the terror and joy, the harsh challenge and abiding rewards of frontier life. Details about upcoming performances of Quilters can be found on the Gallery Theater’s website. Hurry though — the last performance is March 16th.