News

CCQ instructors donate pillowcases for foster kids

PillowcasesCoffee Creek Quilters instructors sewed 163 pillowcases this holiday season for donation to the Sleep Country Foster Kids program. This has become an annual tradition that parallels the donation of quilts made throughout the year by students in our prison quilting program.

In addition to pillowcases, Sleep Country accepts donations of pajamas, shoes, clothing, school supplies, coats, and toys. Cash donations are also welcome. Sleep Country started the Foster Kids program in 2005 with the goal of improving the lives of thousands of foster kids in the Northwest. The program makes it possible for foster youth to take part in healthy and productive extracurricular activities, gain independent living skills, and even go to college.

For more information about the Sleep Country program, check out their website.

Meet our volunteers: Peggy Gelbrich

PeggyPeggy Gelbrich, an instructor in our Tuesday morning class, was featured in an article titled “A passion for piecing: through volunteering and teaching, master quilter shares her skills with others” in the October 28, 2014 edition of the McMinnville News-Register. Peggy is an award-winning quilter who taught quilting classes in the community long before joining CCQ. She currently teaches at various Oregon quilt shops including Boersma’s in McMinnville and Sewn Loverly in Wilsonville.

Peggy is also a talented quilt designer. One of her designs, called “Irish Snail,” is an adaptation of traditional snail’s trail and Irish chain blocks. Another one, called “Jacob’s Snail,” combines the jacob’s ladder and snail’s trail blocks to make a quilt that appears to twirl. She offers patterns for some of her designs on her website.

Peggy’s business card reads “helping you learn is my passion,” and that sentiment carries through to her participation in CCQ. Peggy believes that learning to give to others is as important as learning to combine fabrics or sew a seam. In our classes, the first two quilts students make are donated to local organizations. They can keep the third quilt, but many of our students give the third quilt to a loved one.

We invite you to learn more about Peggy in the full McMinnville News-Register article. You might also want to visit her website.

Heartwarming stories from former students

Heartwarming storiesAt a recent Coffee Creek Quilters member meeting, several instructors reported heartwarming stories about students who have been released from CCCF. Normally we don’t have contact with former students after their release, but occasionally we receive emails or run into them in the community. Chris told us about a student who found a job at a Newberg hair salon within nine days of her release date. Julie ran into a former student who re-entered the workforce in her field as a physical therapist with a highly regarded Metro-area PT clinic. And Martha received a thank-you email for a CCQ release kit from a student who was so thrilled to receive a sewing machine that she set it up and started to use it as soon as she got home – didn’t even take her coat off.