Departing from Heathrow airport for Stockholm airport and all seemed a bit strange with rising at 5:00 am and dawn already breaking. Scrabbling through the previous day's work load, I didn't pack till 11:00 pm the night before. Arriving in Stockholm mid-day, from an uneventful flight we took the fast train into the city from the airport and a cab to our long time friend and Ehrman/ Rowan distributor for Sweden, Eva Wincent, who has a new apartment in the city centre.

We dropped our bags and trotted out to walk the city. Both Kaffe and I had forgotten what an amazingly beautiful city it is. It has the feeling of a large town rather than a sprawling city, with the buildings right up to the water's edge like toasty biscuits - all having interesting roof lines and painted warm tones of ocher & yellow. There are easy walking streets, some cobbled, broken up by the tram lines buzzing between the old and new architecture. Old galleon ships are moored up alongside mock Viking ships and other wooden vessels that are either privately owned or turned into restaurants and bars. Because of the warm toast-earthy colours of the buildings with little or no high contrast painted around the window ledges, there is a radiating, comfortable feeling around the city as if the buildings were lined with old beaten leather and worn velvet. Many of the roof lines have the magnificent details of turrets and towers of copper-lined paneling, giving them a high green-blue finish.

Eva, being the ultimate host, knew what might interest us so we hopped on a ferry across to the old part of town being caught up with what seemed like the morning rush hour's lunch break. We ate well in a sun drenched courtyard restaurant. The service staff were a delicious reminder of how all Swedish folk switch from their native language to English at the wink of an eye - making us feel that little bit more welcome.

That evening we headed out to Stenenge Slott to meet up with our host Linn Stokke, owner and art director of this beautiful exhibition space and historic landmark. Based outside of Stockholm near the airport, this is the second time Kaffe has shown at Stenenge Slott - the first time was in 2000. The exhibition is held in an extremely long, stone barn space, which Kaffe is sharing with Norwegian abstract painters. This time Kaffe has chosen to display patchwork quilts from his books and some that he has hand sewn and quilted himself - not exhibited before. New paintings and his ceramics create a different mood from the exhibition at the Rooska Museet (Design Museum) in Goteborg, which closed earlier in the year. What's always thrilling is to see how other people choose to display his work, and Kaffe was excited to see how dynamic all his pieces looked against the strong, high coloured backgrounds, as you'll see in some of the pictures.

3000 invites where sent out for the opening. It seemed to be the first day of Swedish summer so the crowds poured in to the exhibition and then onto the lawns of the property to take advantage of the splendid grounds.

Linn graciously invited us to stay at their residence on the property with the bedroom doors opening onto uninterrupted views pouring over a lake as far as the eye could see, with the only sounds that of the birds.

Our patchwork workshop had been cancelled, allowing us a day free to run around. So on Sunday morning Eva, Kaffe and I rose early to head out for a ferry boat called Cinderella - taking us two and a half hours through the Alchapelo waters to one of the furthest islands from Stockholm before the open sea. Kaffe and Eva stitching away on needlepoint cushion samples amusing onlookers. One daring lady inquired if the needlepoint was by Kaffe Fassett - Eva explaining that Kaffe was sitting next to her - much to everyone's amusement. Kaffe's name is all over Scandinavia as it means coffee there.

Sitting at the back of the boat, we skimmed at high speed through the flat, mirrored waters and passed through narrow waterways where all the Swedish folk have dreams of having their summer homes. The islands look like huge, smooth elephant backs. Pine trees manage to hold on and flourish in any craves. All the wooden houses with their distinct Scandinavian character are isolated and tranquil. Our final stop was an island collared by small wooden houses all lined with picket fences, nestled together with entwined sandy walk ways ... no room for cars. After leaving the houses we were soon drifting through a beautiful pine forest leading us to a deserted pebble beach where we sat for an hour letting all the worries of the world pass by...tiny ripples lapping at the water's edge under the warm basking sun.

We ate at a typical restaurant at the harbor's edge. We ate beets with goat cheese with rocket salad followed by a crayfish mousse on a crouton, local beer followed by stewed rhubarb and strawberries with a typical sponge biscuit. Taking a different ferry back, I felt like I'd had a two week vacation in this one glorious, endless day.