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A quilt show with quilts made by women incarcerated at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility is on display at the Canby Public Library through the end of April. The exhibit also includes instructor-made quilts which are being offered for sale as part of our fundraising. On Tuesday, April 29th Mary Ann McCammon, an instructor in our Thursday afternoon class, will make a presentation about our program at the library. Mary Ann’s talk starts at 6:30 pm. The quilt shown at left is a student’s second quilt. CCQ’s students learn the basics of quilting with their first quilts: cutting with a rotary cutter, sewing an accurate quarter inch seam, and basic quilting techniques. With second quilts, they learn more advanced techniques such as half square triangles. The Canby library is located at 292 N. Holly, Canby, OR. Please check the Canby Library’s website for their hours.

The Independent Order of Foresters is partnering with Coffee Creek Quilters to make quilts for patients at the Portland VA Medical Center. Foresters purchased enough patriotic-themed fabrics and quilt batting for 14 quilts. Then volunteers from Foresters and CCQ came together on March 15th for a kit-making session. Over the next few months, students in the quilting classes at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility will sew the quilts. When the quilts are finished, Foresters volunteers will deliver the throw-sized quilts to the veterans. Funding for the fabric purchase comes from the Foresters Community Grants program, an initiative that enables Foresters members to apply for grants of up to $2,500 to fund volunteer activities that are meaningful to them and to their own communities.

Occasionally we hear from former CCQ students after they’ve been released from Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. Trish L. sent us an email expressing her gratitude for the quilting skills we taught her and for giving her a healthy outlet to cope. She attached this picture of her Mom cuddling with the quilt Trish made for her in the Thursday class. Trish is settling into her new life and has started working on another quilt from a kit we gave her.

The Coffee Creek Quilters program was featured in the article “Coffee Creek Quilters: A stitch in time saves lives” in the December issue of Country Pleasures Magazine. In addition to describing our program, the article provides a peak inside the classroom, introducing the reader to Jennifer and Mary Ann, a student and an instructor, respectively, in the Thursday class. Jennifer had to overcome problems with ADHD and hand tremors to learn how to cut fabric, read a pattern, and operate a sewing machine. The article reports that “as a CCQ participant, she has acquired new, useful skills. She has learned patience. She has proven to herself she can accomplish very difficult tasks despite having ADHD and hand tremors.” Mary Ann has been a volunteer with CCQ for seven years. The Country Pleasures article quotes her as saying “As soon as I visited the program, I knew I would enjoy it. Every week I experience heartwarming moments that validate why we’re here. Several weeks ago a student brought in a picture of her son holding the third quilt she’d made. It was a New York Yankee quilt because her son loves the Yankees. She told him whenever he felt sad or sick to put the quilt around him and it’d be like having his mommy’s arms around him.” We invite you to read the full article.  

Members 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 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.