News

New book inspired by Coffee Creek Quilters

Hope on the InsideBest selling author Marie Bostwick has a new novel out called Hope on the Inside. It’s about Hope Carpenter, a woman who finds new purpose in a new phase of her life when she volunteers to teach crafts to women incarcerated at a local women’s prison.

Marie’s research for the book included a visit to our Tuesday morning class at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility and sharing lunch with the Tuesday morning class instructors.

In an acknowledgement, she dedicated the book to Coffee Creek Quilters, “who truly do bring hope to the inside and without whom this book likely would not have been written.” We invite you to read the full acknowledgement.

You can learn more about Marie Bostwick and her books on her website and Facebook page.

A message from a former student

A messageCCQ has been teaching quilting classes at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility since 2002. Here’s a message we recently received from a student in our very first class:

“I was sitting at my table this evening, finishing a quilt, and I thought of the first quilt I ever made. I learned to quilt in the very first cccf quilting class! I think my instructor’s name was Marge….but after this long, I can’t remember.

I wanted to email and thank the women who generously donate their time to this program. Quilting has been an outlet for me over these last 17 years and helped me through tough times.

Many times, those who work in corrections never hear the success stories, sometimes they are very few and far between. I released in 2003 and I started college. I now have my masters degree in education and work as a teacher at deer ridge correctional institution.

Thank you for being a part of my journey and for giving of yourselves to people who many have given up on. I feel blessed for having been a part of your program.”

Angie

CCQ donates quilts to Kinship House

Kinship House donationJust in time for the holidays, CCQ members delivered 23 quilts to Kinship House, a Portland nonprofit that provides mental health services to kids in foster care. The Kinship House mission is to help minimize transitions and increase the chances of children settling into a stable, healthy, and permanent home. You can learn more about Kinship House on their website.

In the Coffee Creek Quilters prison quilting program, our students each make three quilts. The first two are for donation to organizations like Kinship House while students get to keep their third quilts.

We know that our quilts are much appreciated and look forward to continuing to provide quilts for donation.