EQA Collections

Celebrations

In 2009 the EQA celebrated its 20th anniversary and for this reason, there was a dedicated gallery at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham where a “special birthday card” was sent from each country. Under the theme of “Celebrations” every country sent a composition of 10 banners (15 cm wide x 150 cm long), together creating a greetings card of 150 x 150 cm.

Each country interpreted the theme in a different way, which meant that each composition was unique. In Norway, for example, it is very typical to celebrate all events with flowers so they chose title “The Valley of flowers” and all of their banners had flowers on them. Finland decided that they would have 10 cm white at the top and 20 cm navy at the bottom of their banner quilts. Switzerland, remaining true to the colour which stands for their country, included at least 75% red while Belgium specified that a splash of red (5%) was right for them. The Hungarian Guild, which was also celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2009, went for a group design. The silhouette of the country is emphasized in the composition and it showcases different techniques that have influenced Hungarian quilters: crazy, sashiko, trapunto, boutis, korak, paper piecing...... Luxemburg also decided to make a group quilt. Its composition is a vision of their National Holiday which is celebrated in June with fireworks, music and all kind of festive activities.  Finally Italy decided to “play with” the colours of the EQA, black and white, and add a “touch” of red, which is an important part of every celebration. The remaining countries left up design questions to individual contributors but their greetings cards are just as exciting to look at.

The Celebration Quilts from 16 EQA countries

The Suitcase Collections

A Suitcase Collection is made up of quilts made by members of the EQA-countries. The quilts are brought together at the annual meeting of the International Representatives of all the member countries. They are then divided into mixed sets. Each International Representative then takes a Collection back to her own country usually in a suitcase!

In 1993 the 1st Suitcase Collection was proposed. It was decided that members of all EQA Guilds would be asked to submit a small quilt for a Suitcase Exhibition on the theme ”Anything Goes”. Four years later, in 1997 the theme was ”Water”. In 2001 the 3rd Collection was to be a Miniature Collection on the theme of ”Playing”. Quilts were to be between a minimum of 25 x 25 cms and a maximum of 50 x 50 cms.

In 2006 we decided to launch a 4th Suitcase collection to the theme "Hot-Cold" and every country had to contribute 17 quilts in the size 60cm x 60cm. Together with the organisers in Birmingham it was decided that all 289 quilts would be shown at "The Festival of Quilts" in August 2006. What a privilege! The response to this special exhibition was enormous. After the show every IR took 17 quilts home with them and these have been travelling around Europe since then. They will be travelling around until July 2009 and will go back to their owners in August 2009. If you live in one of the EQA countries and would like to borrow the collection to show in your Quilt group or guild, please contact the international representative of your country. We will be delighted to send them to you.

Quilts of the 4th suitcase collection from: Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Sweden
 

“My Country” Quilts

Experience the diversity of European cultures and landscapes reflected in approx. 160 quilts from the seventeen member countries of the European Quilt Association. This collection of A4 quilts was launched at the Festival of Quilts in 2007 and will then be shown in the other member countries of the EQA over the following two years.

Quilts from: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy Luxemburg, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom