Happy Independence Day from the Forest Country of Sweden, where we are celebrating the long Midsummer with the locals. Sophie was invited to attend a Swedish Fiddle Workshop Tour, which includes several Folk Music Festivals in the countryside. If you show up to the festival with a fiddle, you get in free, and you can join in spontaneous music-making.
Last night we had a traditional Swedish dinner on a 400 year old forest farm property, with cream in our coffee that came from a cow an hour before. Today we had a workshop on Cattle Calling which is a combination of yelling, singing, and the way my Swedish Grandma used to call us in for dinner. (It is how they call their cows home from the woods at night.)
While I am on this trip, I want to share with you the colors and culture from this Land of the Midnight Sun. Above is a collage with photos from a folk music festival, with local musicians in their traditional dress. When you go into the woods, it feels very magical and lush, with berries and foxes and that bright evening light with the low sun hanging on the horizon and filtering through the trees. The sun falls just below the horizon for a few hours, and the lavender sky is reflected in the pink and teal water.
There are many people in the village, wearing the national colors of Yellow and Blue for the World Cup. Most of the country houses and barns are painted a deep red with white trim. Lupines grow in massive clumps along the side of the forest roads, and tiny white daisies dot the green fields. If our driving is a little wobbly in the rental car, a little coffee cup symbol appears on the dashboard and it says “Time to take a break!”
sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul
Enjoy artist interviews, tutorials, and quilt festival tours, on our eQuilter Video Page.
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eQuilter Classroom & Event Calendar:
July 16 – 20 – Lea McComas Workshops @ eQuilter – Register Now!
July 23 – eQuilter Charity Sewing Day (Please RSVP)
Sept 14-19 – Betty Busby FRCQ workshops @ eQuilter
Oct 6-7 – M.J. Kinman Gemstone Quilt workshop @ eQuilter
Dec 2 – CQC workshop Victoria Findlay Wolfe @ eQuilter
Luana’s Travel Calendar:
June 27 – July 11 – Sweden
Aug 5-12 – London & Birmingham UK Festival of Quilts
Sept 8 – Color Marketing Group – Wash DC
Nov 13-19, 2018 – POLAR BEAR Tour
Dec 23 – Jan 4 – China
