Madeira. Quilt by Ricky Tims, 2021. Hand-dyed fabric. Machine appliqué. Free-motion machine quilted. Based on a photo taken by Hugo Dos Santos on the island of Madeira.

Bohemian Rhapsody. Quilt by Ricky Tims. International award-winning quilt. Original hand-dyed fabrics. Free-motion machine quilted.

Northern Lights. Quilt by Ricky Tims. Hand-dyed fabrics, machine pieced, free-motion machine quilted. Based on a late 1800's "Streak of Lightning" quilt.

Chamisa Corral. Quilt by Ricky Tims. Hand-dyed fabrics. Machine appliqué and free-motion machine quilted. Fence at Autumn Rock of an early 1900s corral that had fallen. These posts burned in the 2018 Spring Fire.

Self Portrait. Quilt by Ricky Tims. Hand-dyed fabrics. Machine blanket-stitch appliqué. Free-motion machine quilted.

Fire Dragon Rhapsody. Quilt by Ricky Tims. Winner "Best Machine Workmanship" AQS 2006. Resides in the permanent collection of the National Quilt Museum.

Detail showing the double-blanket stitch appliqué and free-motion machine quilting

Made in 1996. 100% Commercial cotton fabric. Paper pieced. Simple Gifts was selected by juror June Cluvy as the 101st Best American Quilt of the 20th Century.

Free motion quilted on domestic sewing machine with about 30 different colors of thread.

Made in 2008. The image began as a photo I took of asters and a butterfly. The photograph was manipulated in photoshop using a montage technique to create the swirling background. The image was printed full size onto whole cloth (36" x 44") then heavily stitched to add texture and detail.
Alternate name: Kiss My Aster

Detail of Asternoon Delight.

I was inspired by the Fall foliage of the gambel/scrub oaks on the ranch the first year I purchased the land. That image inspired me to create this small piece that is heavily textured with thread. Autumn Rock is the larger formation in the center fo the image. The fabrics are hand-dyed.

Based on two traditional quilt blocks (Log Cabin and Bears Paw) this quilt was made as a tribute to my Granny Newsom. The border is bobbin quilted using Ricky Tims Razzle Dazzle metallic thread. Quilted free-motion on domestic sewing machine. 56" x 56"

The Beat Goes On (2000). I made this quilt one week following my quadruple heart bypass surgery in St. Louis, MO. Made with 100% cotton original hand-dyed fabric. 48" x 54" (private collection)

I made several similar small improvisational quilts that became icons for my "quilting caveman style". 14" x 20"

Made in 2003, my dad pieced the diamond units. I designed the setting, stitched the appliqué and quilted the quilt. 100% hand-dyed fabric. 93" x 93"

Detail of Dad's Lone Star showing the free-motion quilting.

In 1994 I received these boot blocks from members of my guild for having chaired their 1993 quilt show. I finally assembled them into a quilt in 2012. Just for fun - and it was.

Made for the 2013 Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative Celebrity Quilt Auction. The delicate colors and petals dropping symbolize a fading memory of a life that was once vibrant and full. 16" x 16" (Private Collection)

Made in 1993, the blocks were gifts to me by family and friends. Not an art quilt per se, but a non-traditional setting for a snuggle quilt. 82" x 104"

Base on my Harmonic Convergence series of quilts, this one features a tree of life with leaves labeled with generations of family members. 100% hand-dyed fabrics - free-motion quilted. 30" x 30". 2008

Made from 100% hand dyed fabric and free-motion machine quilted. 45" x 45". 2009

First Quilt - by Ricky Tims

This quilt was made for the 2011 Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative Celebrity Quilt Auction. The title speaks to the loss of memory associated with the disease. AAQI raised over one million dollars for Alzheimer's research. 100% hand-dyed fabrics and free-motion quilted. 16" x 16". (Private Collection)

This commissioned quilt features the historic Glen Eyrie Castle built by General John Palmer. approx 52" x 54". (private collection) 2004

On TheQuiltShow.com, Alex and I hosted guest, Meg Cox, in a quilt challenge based on Broadway musicals. I chose Hamilton. My inspiration for this was the lyric..."in the eye of the hurricane there is quiet for just a moment - a yellow sky"

Not made as a fine art quilt, this grass-roots effort made from my jeans and red corduroy features a few fun elements like pockets and knee-holes. It's been compared to the Gees Bend quilts, and in hindsight, I have to agree. 2014

This is one of the quilts that spawned a book by the same title on the technique and method I developed to create this kaleidoscopic quilts. 2001

One of my favorite ways to make a quilt is without any rules, rulers, measuring, or straight lines. It's an improvisational style of quilting that results in many happy surprises. Poem stitched: Can something come from nothing? Can we stop the hands of time? The road of life moves forward, and the past is left behind.

A small improvisational quilt. approx 14" x 14" 2010

Named for the mystical dark forest in the Hobbit, we have a stand of oak trees on our property that we gave the same name. They continue to inspire me. This is one in the series. 2012 (Private Collection)

Made in 1998 as the cover for a choral/orchestral music recording that featured music of hope an healing for those grieving a loss. The accompanying anonymously written poem for the quilt is:

He has not left us, our dearest love,
Nor has he traveled far,
Just stepped inside home's loveliest room,
And left the door ajar

This is a "caveman" (improvisational) quilt made from hand-dyed fabrics and free-motion machine quilted.

Rhapsody Fantastique (c2007) is created with my original digitized embroidery designs. 30" x 30". Made with 100% cotton hand dyed fabric.

Made for the 2012 Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative Celebrity Quilt Auction, Sentinels at Sunset a tribute to the caretakers that watch over those whose lives and lights are fading away.

The quilt was in a private collection for six years. After the Spring Wildfire in 2018, that burned over 200,000 acres in Southern Colorado, and got within only a few feet of my house (which as miraculously spared), I was speaking at the Colorado Quilt Council's 40th year celebration. A CQC member who had been the highest bidder at the auction, gifted it back to me. It was an emotional reunion. It is a treasure and having it gifted back to me remains one of the most precious acts I've experienced. This small quilt measures only 12" x 14".

I enjoy being a fine art quilter that rides the fence between tradition and contemporary styles of quilting. When traditional designs spark my interest, I always find a way to spin it into a contemporary work of art. 34" x 57". 2013

A "feathered star" quilt has long been popular and features eight points on the star. I redesigned the traditional version to a six-pointed feathered snowflake. 29" x 29". 2014

I created this in 2003 for the annual auction of the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. It was won by Opal Frey. South Cheyenne canyon flows out of Seven Falls, a historic tourist attraction in Colorado Springs, CO

I grew up in Wichita Falls, TX. My dad's parents were in the next county over, Clay County. They lived in flat lands on the edge of live oak forest. The house was white with a red roof. We had windmills to draw water up for cattle. The ponds, murky red from the red clay of the Texas soil, were commonly known as 'tanks'. I used a bit of artistic license here and made the water blue - after all, if the sky reflected at the proper angle, it would be blue. The area had plowed fields and from some vantage points you could see for miles. Look closely on the horizon. A boiling summer storm is definitely approaching.

My first year quilting, 1991, my grandmother, (Myrble Virginia Chesher Tims) passed away, September of 1991. I was only a few months into quilting - but I was addicted to it. My dad had also started quilting. After her death, dad went to sort through her belongings. In the attic of the old house he found a box with bits and pieces of fabric scraps in odd shapes and sizes. They all fit into a shoebox. Dad gave the box of scraps to me and I decided to use her fabrics to make a wall quilt as a tribute to my grandmother and the family ranch. Hopefully you'll notice it is hand quilted.

As each year comes and goes, I think about the connection I have to those who blazed a way for me. The end of a year is time to reflect and connect dots that help us to understand where we came from - and perhaps provide a bit of guidance as to what direction we should take moving into the future. This quilt helps me to remember my grandparents and the times we shared in the little house in Clay County, TX. May the flames of love never be extinguished. May they never be fully past and gone. We'll take a cup of kindness yet! I hope you will agree.

Happy New Year!

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon;
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,
that loving Breast of thine;
That thou canst never once reflect
On old long syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

This is created from 2 yards off of a bolt of "mis-dyed seconds" that I purchased from Hancocks Fabrics for about .88 cents per yard. The entire body of the quilt is made from only that one fabric. The border includes a solid black.

The quilt is constructed from log cabin blocks that have two sides bordered with half-square-triangles. The blocks are offset, reversed, rotated, etc, to create an unorganized feel. However, it is neither random nor is it unorganized.

This quilt is an allegory about life. The spirals represent paths in a woods (the triangles represent trees). On a journey or quest one seeks comfort, fire, and shelter at night. The center of a log cabin is usually a hearth (warmth/comfort). The centers here represent campfires - a temporary place of security and warmth.

We know it is night because there is a moon (on point block) and stars in the upper right of the quilt. The center "campfires" are our temporary "home" on the journey. We leave one place seeking another and stop again to find temporary comfort. The paths leads us through many chapters in our quest to find the ultimate place of comfort and security - "Home!"

The hand quilting creates a spiraling vortex that circles and centers around the long-sought-after "home" which is shown as a hut located just up and left of center. I have not arrived. I am not "home" because the window is dark.

I made this quilt in November 1991 about 5 months after making my first quilting stitch. 36" x "52". 1991