News

CCQ member Liz Weeks made the news recently when she was named Featured Quilter at the 2018 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.

Liz made her first quilt in the 1970s, then quit to raise her daughter and teach elementary school. She got bitten by the quilting bug again in 1999 and hasn’t stopped since. Liz likes to make traditional quilts best. She particularly enjoys seeing the patterns and colors come together. “I like my quilts to be useful and for people to find warmth in them,” she says.

CCQ was founded in 2002. Liz lived in Tigard at the time and became one of our first instructors after reading an article about it in The Oregonian. Teaching women incarcerated at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility was deeply satisfying to Liz. One of her students told her, “The only time I don’t think about where I am is when I’m here.”

When she moved to Bend in 2005, Liz became the Central Oregon Representative for Coffee Creek Quilters; she helps coordinate donations and publicity locally for us. Her other volunteer activities include the Quilts for Kids project, Kiwanis Food Project, and the Sisters Quilt Show.

You can learn more about Liz in the NuggetNews.com article “Featured artist finds comfort in quilts“.

Thank you Liz for your past, present and future support of CCQ.

Radio station KBOO’s Prison Pipeline program recently interviewed CCQ’s Rachel Wallis to share with their listeners about our prison quilting program. Rachel teaches in our Thursday afternoon class.

Rachel was involved in community quilting in Chicago before moving to Portland. She’s an activist who uses art in her organizing work, and an artist who engages in issues of racial and social justice. Rachel believes that traditional textile techniques, and particularly quilting, can provide a platform for creating dialog and understanding around complex ideas and issues.

We invite you to listen to the half hour KBOO interview to learn more about Rachel and our program.