News

Doll kit donation

Alice and her dilemmaDewdrop Dolls & Stories is a company that sells doll/story kits designed to bring adults and kids together around the Dewdrop Doll characters. They contacted us recently, offering to donate kits for students in our prison quilting program to make as gifts.

While we’re not able to use the kits in our classes, we’re happy to report that the company donated 35 kits to the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility Head Start program. CCCF’s Head Start classes bring incarcerated women together with their children twice weekly, giving the moms an opportunity to bond with their preschool age kids and to prepare themselves for parenting after release from prison.

Each Dewdrop Dolls & Stories kit comes with a story book that teaches a good character trait, fabric printed with the front and back of a doll to go with the story, two squares of the doll’s face to incorporate into a doll quilt, and instructions on how to sew and stuff the doll and make the quilt. Please visit the Dewdrop Dolls & Stories website to learn more about their products.

CCQ featured by Wilsonville Spokesman

CCQ classCCQ was featured in a Wilsonville Spokesman newspaper article this week. “Two for you and one for me” tells how our program, started 14 years ago by Koko Sutton, has grown from a small experiment to a successful program that teaches life skills along with quilting to women incarcerated at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility.

The article’s title references the fact that each student makes three quilts. Two are donated to various organizations including Emanuel Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital, Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, Meridian Park Hospital, Providence Elder Place, Salud Medical Center, and Camp Erin. Students keep their third quilt, or give it to a loved one.

The Spokesman article offers a peak inside our Tuesday morning class, including pictures and interviews with students and instructors. “Thank you for your time and for believing in me,” one student said.

“This is two hours a week that they feel like they’re regular people. That’s special,” said lead instructor Peggy Gelbrich.

CCQ to exhibit at Old Aurora quilt show

Old Aurora MuseumCoffee Creek Quilters will exhibit during two days of Old Aurora Colony Museum’s 44th Annual Quilt Show, “Home at Last — An Aurora Sampler.” CCQ members will be at the show with examples of our students’ quilts on October 14 and 15. The quilt show runs October 14-23, 2016, 10 am to 4 pm daily.

The Old Aurora Quilt Show celebrates the 160th anniversary of the founding of the Aurora Colony in 1856 AND the 50th anniversary of the Old Aurora Colony Museum. Nearly 100 traditional and contemporary quilts will be exhibited throughout the Museum and the historical Kraus House adjacent to the Museum, augmented by antique historical quilts from the Museum’s extensive collection.

There will be other special exhibits during the quilt show including Quilts of Valor, a presentation by fiber artist and quilter Isaac Yoder, a display of 1800’s quilted skirts, petticoats, and bonnets collected by Cathy Harper, a quilt block contest, and more. Please visit the Museum’s website for details.

The Old Aurora Colony Museum is located at 15018 Second Street NE, Aurora, OR.