News

CCQ quilts on display at Canby Library

Canby Quilt ShowQuilts made by women incarcerated at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility are on display at the Canby Public Library until April 26th. The exhibit also includes quilts made by instructors in the Coffee Creek Quilters program. Instructor-made quilts are available for purchase as part of our fundraising efforts.

The quilt shown at left is typical of a first quilt made by one of our students. Each student makes three quilts in weekly two-hour classes held in the prison dining room.

The Canby library is located at 292 N. Holly, Canby, OR. Please check the Canby Library’s website for their hours.

Quilting at a men’s prison

SRCI prison quilting programSeveral years ago, CCQ published a document to help others start similar programs teaching quilting in prisons. We’re thrilled to hear that Snake River Correctional Institution has done just that. SRCI is a men’s prison in Malheur County, Oregon.

Five men participate in the SRCI program, meeting four hours each week for 18 months to make donation quilts. So far, the quilting program has given away 17 quilts to community agencies including Harvest House, Treasure Valley Children’s Relief Nursery and the in-house hospice unit at SRCI.

The Malheur County Argus Observer newspaper recently published a touching feature story about the SRCI quilting program. We’re providing a link to “Prison inmates crafting care” so you can learn more about it.

If you’re interested in starting a prison quilting program in your area, we invite you to read The Coffee Creek Quilters Program: A Guide for Starting Quilting Classes in Correctional Facilities.

A poem from Christina

Christina, a student in our Thursday class, wrote this poem and shared it with us. We think it’s lovely, so we’re sharing it with you.

            Quilt

Our lives are like a quilt,
we’re constantly picking pieces up,
cutting things out,
mixing different patterns of our
lives to fit into place.
Even the most tattered & torn,
mixed & matched pieces you sew &
weave in can turn out to be
the most beautiful masterpiece.