Beautiful Christmas Music

Ok, so maybe now I'm starting to get into the christmas spirit.  Kinda bummed me out a few weeks ago when I started hearing christmas tunes on the radio.  Like one of Bonnie Hunter's posts back then, I thought the same... "it's too soon!"

Especially when I look outside, it's sunny, minus 3 degrees celcius... and NO SNOW!  Makes me think we might have a brown christmas.. lol

Anyways, an email came in today.. one of Ricky Tim's updates, and I took the time to browse his site.  He's hilarous!  And has christmas videos of songs he's singing.

Loved this one:

It's called Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.

Very, very pretty.

Then I found this one:

Christmas In A Small Town

This too was really nice to listen to.  Both of these are available on his CD by the same name, "Christmas In A Small Town".

I'm not a promoter for him, I just really like the music... and he's one hell of a quilter!!

If you want a laugh... check out his version of Jingle Bells... WAY TOO MUCH CAFFINE!!  LOL

Enjoy!

Free Motion Quilting - practice

I love my Janome Horizon.  It's an amazing machine, and does take quite a bit to get use to.

Free motion quilting is definitely an art form that takes a LOT of practice!

As such, I've read various books, magazines, web sites, watched numerous youtube videos, and recently purchased several of Patsy Thompson's dvds.  Ricky Tims does some amazing work as well, far beyond my reach (at this time).

Following along with Patsy's dvd, Fast and Free! Volume 0.5 I've stitched up a few of her lessons.  This is my progress so far.  These quilt sandwiches are 8.5" x 11".

The first section is all loopy patterns.

Stippling

Loops

Loops with stars

Loops with hearts (these aren't easy)

Loops with flowers

Loops with sun bursts (I apparently suck at straight, pointy lines) :)

But, it all takes practice, getting the tension wasn't much of an issue, it's getting the speed of the machine coordinated with the movement of my hands that's not so smooth yet.

Today I'll do the next section which is all lines, triangles, etc.

As a side note, I found these pictures that I haven't posted anywhere.  Jim and I went camping for the May 24 long weekend this year and Jake had such a wonderful, fresh air, exciting time, he was exhausted on the ride home... Jim snapped a few pics.  hehehe

Falling asleep sitting up

He couldn't stay awake, rested his head on the center console from the back seat

I guess he had a fun weekend too