Ricky Tims
December 10, 2008
For more than ten years, Ricky Tims has been a star in the quilting world. His fabulous quilts, such as Bohemian Rhapsody and Fire Dragon Rhapsody, (shown below) and his well-known patterns such as the Harmonic Convergence series have helped turn him into a household name (at least in quilting households!)
Ricky recently got back from Quilt Festival in Houston, TX and I had a chance to talk to him about festival, his new line of fabrics, his new book, and his Super Seminar in Arizona last week.
I asked Ricky how he had enjoyed the Quilt Festival and if he had seen anything in particular that inspired him.
Festival was “good”, but not “great”. Ricky said that due to the current economy some people thought festival would be “a bust” and “awful” but the people who were there were there to buy.
Ricky Tims’ Fire Dragon Rhapsody quilt
Ricky said that the best thing that happened at Market was the introduction of the AccuQuilt template cutter. Ricky will have more AccuQuilt templates coming out soon, but he said he is not a fan merely because he works with the company. He pointed out that this is the first new and exciting quilting gadget that has come out in a very long time. Ricky said that the Accuquilt booth was swamped three and four people deep all week.
I asked Ricky what he enjoys most about events like Festival. He said he loves to be around what he loves. It’s like a big family reunion where he can see his colleagues, other teachers, to exchange ideas, and meet the public and interact with them.
“I saw lots and lots of quilts that I really loved. The quilts are always inspiring.”
One of the Rhapsodie Coloree fabrics
Red Rooster has introduced Ricky’s third line of Rhapsodie Coloree III fabrics. It is due to come out in the spring. The images were inspired by his trip to Japan in 2007. He used some of his hundreds of photos from the trip as inspiration for the fabric.
Ricky Tims Kool Kaleidoscope DVD
Ricky’s Kool Kaleidoscope DVD was launched at Quilt Market. It’s a more than hour long instructional DVD that teaches you how to make a kaleidoscope quilt. Ricky said that on a scale from 1 to 10, this pattern is maybe a 3 or 3.5. Easy enough that a confident beginner could do it. The seemingly complicated design is created using “strip-pieced sets of fabric strata”.
Ricky’s Celtic Fantasy Rhapsody Quilts book
C&T has announced Ricky’s third Rhapsody Design companion book. It’s called Celtic Fantasy Rhapsody Quilts and features tools and guidelines to let you create your own Rhapsody quilt with Celtic Designs.
The “how to” for a basic Rhapsody quilt can be found in his first book Rhapsody Quilts. The companion books all refer back to that original book for basic instructions. You can buy them at Ricky’s website or your local quilt shop.
I asked Ricky to tell me about his Super Seminars. (He had one last week (Dec. 4 – 6) in Mesa Arizona with Alex Anderson and Libby Lehman.)
Ricky said these seminars happen three or four times a year in different areas of the country and typically attract about 500 to 700 quilters. Unlike a typical class, there no supply list, no sewing, no dragging your machine around. Instead you get a syllabus of more than 120 pages and 15 hours(!) of instruction and lecture from all three teachers. They keep the lecture lively by offering live demonstrations, videos, a display of all of Ricky’s quilts (as well as Alex’s and Libby’s), they even answer written questions from the audience. Participants may also shop from Ricky’s store where he carries everything that is specific and unique to his quilts and techniques.
Tulip for Chantelle 2, one of Ricky’s caveman quilts
The seminars are sponsored by Bernina of America and there is always a Bernina vendor selling machines. To read all about the Super Seminars, visit Ricky’s site. You can also check Ricky’s website for exact dates and details of upcoming seminars.
Future Super Seminar locations:
(2010)
Cleveland, OH
Yarmouth, MA
(2011)
Rochester, NY
Quad Cities in Iowa
Asheville, NC
QE: As a teacher, what do you get out of events like the Super Seminar?
Oh my gosh! My entire focus in life is to give back what I’ve been given. People go away with confidence on many more levels than just quilting.
Ricky said that he wants to reach as many people as he can in as short an amount of time as possible. These seminars provide a huge audience that he otherwise could not reach. It just wouldn’t physically be possible for him to travel and give as many classes as it would take to reach this many people.
It’s a motivational event – more than just a quilting event. “The creative process comes from inside of people and who they are.”
Whether he is in front of 10 people or 700 people, he tries to inspire confidence in the audience so that they feel confident enough to use their creativity. People leave feeling more creative and productive and able to follow their hopes and dreams.
Ricky designed the seminar so that it is not targeted at any particular kind of quilter (art, traditional etc.). It’s aimed at all quilters and he shows how techniques can be applied to contemporary or traditional quilts.
