Category Archives: ricky tims

A Day With Ricky Tims

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I have my ticket!  I am thrilled and excited to be attending the Ricky Tim’s seminar scheduled for August 8, 2013 near my home.  A local quilt shop is sponsoring this event.

From the website of, A Great Notion:

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A Great Notion is Thrilled to Announce . . .

A Day (and Evening!) with Ricky Tims Musician and Contemporary Master Quiltmaker

Ricky Tims has successfully blended two diverse passions into one very unique and interesting career. His skills as a pianist, composer and producer have been evident by the thousands who have heard his music. His success as a quilter is equally significant.

Ricky is known in the international world of quilting as a best-selling author, enthusiastic and encouraging teacher, an award-winning quilter, fabric designer, and a talented and spellbinding speaker. His innovative and entertaining presentations feature live music and humour combined with scholarly insights and wisdom. His quilts have been displayed worldwide and are highly regarded as excellent examples of contemporary quilts with traditional appeal.

Ricky has made quilts that have won numerous international awards. He was recently named as one of The Thirty Most Distinguished Quilters in the World.  In 2009 he was selected (in a three-way tie) by the readers of Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine as The Most Influential Person in the Quilting Industry.

Ricky is passionate about quilting, and is delighted to share his experience and enthusiasm with quilters of every level of expertise. He is challenged by creativity in all forms, and encourages individuals to cultivate self-expression, reach for the unreachable, and believe in the impossible.

Ricky is making his first visit to Canada in several years and A Great Notion is thrilled to sponsor him on one of only four stops across the country.

A Cure for Quilter’s Block

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I belong to a small group of on-line friends that have been discussing our next quilting project. We are all planning to make Ricky Tims‘ Convergence quilt.

I had been to a quilt show once where someone made a Convergence quilt using a Michael Miller chicken/rooster print. I thought this would be the opportunity to make that quilt myself, after all, I do own a meter of that wonderful print!

While I was at the quilt shop yesterday looking for coordinate prints, another quilter asked me what I had planned for the gorgeous chicken fabric. I told her I was making a Convergence quilt. She had never heard of the pattern so I explained how you use four prints and cut them into strips and sew them back together. (Obviously simplified instructions.) She was horrified and couldn’t believe that I would consider cutting up these beautiful chickens. At that moment, I realized that I couldn’t go through with cutting this gorgeous fabric up–I couldn’t see these chickens “in jail” behind bars of contrasting fabric!

I went ahead and purchased two coordinates but I vowed to find a different way to display my beloved chickens. (The red fabric was already in my stash.)

When I got home, I remembered that I had previously purchased a copy of Judy Sisneros‘ book, 9-Patch Pizzazz. This is a more appropriate use of my chicken fabric as this book makes excellent use of large scale prints by leaving them intact, in large chunks–6 1/2″, 12 1/2″, 18 1/2″, etc. As long as each side is divisible by 6 and add 1/2″ you can make use of the square or rectangle in this pattern.
Now that I have a pattern to use the chickens appropriately, I turned my attention back to selecting fabrics from my stash for my Convergence quilt. This is the first combination I put together. I have decided that the fabrics may be too “matchy” and there isn’t enough contrast between all pieces so I discarded this selection and went back to searching.

Then I came across a bright floral FQ in my stash. I started to pull fabrics from the floral and came up with this combination. Unless I come up with another combination before we start cutting into our fabrics, this is what I am going with for my Convergence quilt!

Thanks to the FABs and on-line discussions about this new project, I am officially curred of Quilter’s Block…….at least for now!