European-wide Quilting in Public Day
(EU-QUiP Day)

Helen Heaney and Marion-Linda Paternostro, president and vice-president of the Austrian Patchwork Guild

In 2005, American knitting enthusiast Danielle Landes had the wonderful idea of encouraging knitters all over the world to leave the comfort of their own homes and to go out and knit in public - and the worldwide knitting in public day was born
( www.wwkipday.com ).

Like patchwork and quilting, knitting is something that you can do alone at home perfectly well. But like patchwork and quilting, knitting is also something that you can share with others, chatting and having a good time while you knit. You might not even be aware of other "closet" knitters or quilters - a neighbour or a colleague at work could be just as interested in the craft as you are, as could somebody who you frequently see but have never talked to about it.

Danielle Landes’ idea was also about improving public awareness of the fact that handicrafts are not merely enjoyed by the older generation alone (to whom we are very grateful for passing on their skills!) but that there are also plenty of young people, men and women, for whom spending their free time creating everyday textile articles - and indeed works of art - is very much in keeping with the times.

We would like to join those world-wide knitters in spirit and initiate a parallel event for quilters - the European-wide quilting in public day, which will always take place on the 3rd Saturday in June - that's the 20th of June in 2009. It also happens to be the longest Saturday of the year - so plenty of daylight hours with which to quilt and sew in the open air!

It's quite simple - all you need to do is to arrange to meet up with some other quilters in a public place and take something convenient to work on. Admittedly, it's much easier to take along your knitting and do a few rows on a park bench than it would be to set up your sewing machine and cutting mat, but nearly every quilter has something which can be sewn by hand.

Everybody can be a "host", i.e. organize a QUiP, and it doesn't involve much preparation. The most important thing is that others can find out where and when you are holding your "quilting party" and you check in advance that you are allowed to hold a Quip there. All events should be publicized on your guild's own homepage and there will be an extra link to all European events on www.e-q-a.eu. It could also be useful to put up some posters and leave some photocopied invitations in quilting and other specialist shops in the vicinity.

Danielle organized the first worldwide knitting in public day in 2005 and no fewer than 25 hosts inaugurated the event. In 2007 there were over 200 get-togethers and last year there were even more. That makes plenty of people all over the world knitting in public on the second Saturday in June. We would like to adopt/adapt this idea for our own passion - please help us make patchwork and quilting better known among the general public.

We're certainly looking forward to the first of what should hopefully be a long series of events - and a new tradition in the quilting world. And we're curious to see how many people will take part this year. Everything has to start somewhere - in Europe this year, and maybe all over the world the year after.