Why Go To Finland?

I recently went to Oulu, Finland, a beautiful town way up north to be part of a show of 8 American quilt artists called, "Quilt Visions." Since I was going, my whole family decided to go as well. We had a great time. The breakfast buffet at our hotel was a wonder to behold. No matter what you wanted, you could find it here or have it specially prepared.

Most of the artists had a posse with them, so we were a large group. Here are most of us:

From left it is Judith Lazerlere, Jane Burch Cochran, Linda Levin, me, Vouko Isacksson, Elina Vieru (The curators) and Heather Pregger. Diana Sargeant was absent for this shot.

One day Elina and Vuoko took us to a stone age village!

My family left Oulu in a rental car and drove down the coast to Vaasa, then to Tampere, where there seemed to be art everywhere.
Sculpture overhead.

 A museum show of the latest fashions in 1969Sculpture just lying aroundMy favorite bistro, for obvious reasons

My favorite installation of the whole trip, by Kaarina Kaikkonen 

And then onward to Helsinki where it seemed like art was everywhere

Every day we took a sauna. Now I want to build one in my San Francisco apartment.