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Karen Campbell was convicted of a felony for driving intoxicated and causing a fatal car crash that killed two people. She served six years at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility and has now published a book about her experiences. Falling: Hard Lessons and the Redemption of the Woman Next Door is available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions.

In her memoir, Karen describes her life before the accident, the harsh realities of prison life, and the path to atonement after release from prison. As she says:

“Falling is the story of how a middle-aged mom learns to navigate life on the Inside. Over the six years I was incarcerated, I learned how to eat a meal in 10 minutes with a spork. I learned obedience and humility. I learned lurid slang. I learned how to keep my mouth shut. I learned how to mother from behind bars, miles from my teenage daughters. And finally, I learned how to love the unloveable, including myself.”

During her time at CCCF, Karen participated in the Coffee Creek Quilters program. She made two quilts for charity and one to keep. Her personal quilt is a beach scene, illustrating her dream for release. Here’s what Karen has to say about her experiences in our program:

“My teacher from the Coffee Creek Quilters, Marjorie, was both an angel and an artist. Her quilts were landscapes and had international renown. She treated me as a student, and fellow human being who dreamed in colors besides beige and prison blue. Creating the quilt was a hands-on example of the skills I would need for parole. Marjorie encouraged me to challenge myself, step back, evaluate, make adjustments, and try again, eyes on the prize. After I released, I hung the landscape quilt of the Caribbean above my bed. Nine years, two months and five days after I was released from prison, the quilt still hangs in its place above my bed. My gratitude to the Coffee Creek Quilters.”

We received this lovely thank you note from Camp Erin for the quilts our instructors made as part of our 2020 quilt challenge.

Most years Camp Erin offers an overnight camp that provides emotional support and grief education for children and teens ages 6 to 17 who have experienced the death of a loved one. In-person events were cancelled in 2020, but alternate activities, including art kits, group video chats, and a quilt for each participant were still offered. This year there were 73 participants.

You can view the quilts we donated to Camp Erin on our 2020 Quilt Challenge page.

When we heard that a longarm quilter in Stayton was organizing an effort to provide comfort quilts to victims of the Oregon wildfires, CCQ members joined in. At first, Heather Hendrickson set a goal of 400 quilts. The idea spread through social media and Heather reports she has received at least 1,000 quilts from quiltmakers throughout the United States. In addition to finished quilts, Heather was collecting fabric and quilting supplies for quilters who have lost their homes.

CCQ members donated quilts, fabric, notions, and quilting books to the cause. We are honored to contribute to the community beyond CCCF while we are unable to serve in our usual capacity at the prison.

To learn more about this project, please visit the Salem Statesman Journal website for an article and video.

Every so often, we hear from women who took our quilting class after they’ve been released from CCCF. Here’s a message we recently received from Celia along with pictures of three of her quilts:

I just wanted to thank you ladies for giving me the opportunity to take the quilting class at Coffee Creek. These are just a couple of quilts I’ve done since being out. The pink one is also a log cabin. Of course I see after the fact of using all black for the dark, it’s harder to see. I thought at the time it was a good idea. Again I truly wanted to thank you for all the knowledge you ladies gave me.
Celia

We think Celia’s quilts are beautiful!

Members of Coffee Creek Quilters made 43 quilts for kids attending Camp Erin this year. We challenge ourselves every year and hold a vote for our favorite three quilts. The wonderful quilt by Dawn Yoshizumi, shown at left, was the winner of this year’s competition. Linda Forbes placed second while third place was a tie between Gail Norby and Nancy Dudley. We invite you to view all of the quilts on our 2020 Quilt Challenge page.

All of the quilts will be donated to Camp Erin, a national program where young people learn to grieve and heal following the death of a loved one. Camp Erin provides a unique opportunity for peer bonding between children and teens facing a similar life circumstance. Funded by Eluna (formerly The Moyer Foundation) and local groups, camps are held in 45 locations in the U.S. and Canada. The camp is free for kids ages 6 to 17. Oregon’s Camp Erin is administered by Providence Hospice of Oregon and is scheduled for August 14-16, 2020. You can learn more about Camp Erin on the Providence website.

CCQ offers four weekly quilting classes for women incarcerated at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. Every year our students make at least 100 quilts for donation; last year it was 140. Some years ago it became apparent that it would be most efficient to have a kitmaking committee assemble quilt kits for the classes, so member Nancy Pettit offered to start  one. These days, Nancy and Cindy Pease co-chair the kitmaking committee. They monitor the quilt kit inventory and periodically invite other members to participate in kit making meetings to assemble more kits. They’re pictured here leading a meeting of kit makers and instructors who gathered recently to fine tune the guidelines for kits. For example, patterns for first quilts are simple, with squares and rectangles. Patterns for second quilts are more challenging and usually introduce half square triangles. Other guidelines cover fabric color selection, the size of fabric pieces, labeling, etc. We are so grateful to Nancy, Cindy, and the other kitmakers for their efforts. The kitmaking committee is a “behind the scenes” effort that helps to make our classes and organization run smoothly.