Daily Blog

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Hey gang! We'll I'm on the road again. This is my first driving tour and I'm headed to five Bernina stores in 10 days. I left Colorado yesterday and drove to Wichita Falls, TX (my hometown, where I was born) and stayed with my Nephew and his family. Today, I drove to Tyler, TX to spend some time with A Nimble Thimble owned by Katie Hartner (see photo). Katie wanted me to do a musical performance and talk and she managed to find a venue and get all the necessary equipment to make it work. Way to go Katie. She thought of a great way to add extra incentive for folks to sign up for my classes tomorrow - she is giving away a Bernina 440 to one lucky student. They get one chance for each semianr they signed up for. WOW!

Now, I might not be able to blog everyday on the tour, and if I have some sroke of rehetorical genius, I'll certainly be sure to post that as well as my antics on the road - but for the next several days i'll just share my daily journal with you.

One realy fun converstaion I had tonight was about digitizing embroidery desings. I'm doing a disk of embroidery featuring my rhapsody designs that will release in the spring. Do any of you digitize or use embroidery in your projects? I used to be a 'straight sticth only' sort of quilter, but now I try to really utilize my machine to maximize the creative possibilities in my quilts.

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Today in the US is Super Bowl Sunday. Many of our quilt shops take advantage of this day by opening and having sales, parties, sewing sessions, etc. We have one member who actually bought his Bernina on Super Bowl Sunday several years back and hasn't stopped quilting since. Who will win the big game? Do you care? Will you shop today at a quilt shop? Are you glued to the TV?

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It is Sunday - and in the US we have a Sunday morning TV show that always uses SUN as the theme for the different segments. This is my current "in progress" quilt. It is currently on hold - i can't imagine why! LOL. It is in my series of Rhapsody quilts. The central large sunflower and leaves are all pieced, the smaller sunflowers in the upper left are appliqued. I'm planning embellishments for the veins in the large leaves. I keep calling it Sunflower Rhapsody, but I'm certainly open to other names.

I know you my not be familiar with my Rhapsody quilts, but i've got a new book coming out soon that will give you all the nitty gritty of it. C&T (visit them on the left) will be publishing my new book on the subject and it will be out in a few months. I just thought you might like a sneak peek! - R

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Okay, okay, so you couldn't see their pretty faces - here they are in all their silly glory - L to R - Katie, Wanda, and Raisin. In one word - Katie is Awesome - Wanda is Affectionate - Raisin is ahmm - well, Independent. Wanda has a funky eye and a funky ear so I almost named her Effie = F. E. Happy Weekend Everyone! Are you quilting?

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Wow, what a whirlwind! Florida was great - they have green stuff called grass - something I've not seen in quite a while! Yes, we are still buried in snow! On the drive home there are piles of it 10' high on the side of the road where it was cleared from the highways weeks ago. We've had snow every weekend for 7 weeks. It started again today. I got home Tuesday and this morning it started snowing. I think we've gotten about 10-12 inches and more on the way.

I've been keeping a spread-sheet on snow totals at our house since last September. As of right now we have had 129.5 inches of it! Our snowyest months are usually March and April, so we can expect that total to go up quite a bit.

I don't mean to bore you with the weather, but for me it is exciting. I love seeing everyhing white and we have needed this for several years. It should do a great deal of good to our area that has been struggeling with the drought. The pups love it! They would rather be outside rooting their noses through the snow than anything else. And since Alex has been getting special attention as a result of sharing her cat - it's time the dog lovers speak up for me. Justin and I have three dogs - Katie (who was Top Dog (first prize) for the 2005 Page-a-day calendar) and the two new pups Wanda and Raisin - littermates. They are all mutts and i adore all of them. I used to breed show Cocker Spaniels, so I"ve had a taste of it all - and I have to admit - I just love dogs! They are not fighting in the photo - they just love to wrestle and play in the snow.

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Susan Rice, aka "Susari," has made our Blog Log Cabin block and posted it in her profile. Susan says, "This is "The Quilt Show" block by Ricky. I used one piece of freezer paper for all the blocks. I put a 3/4" black insert between each piece to make the colors pop."

Way to go Susan! You too can make a Blog Log Cabin using the quilt show colors! See Blog Post on January 9 to download the pattern.

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For the past three years, I've been presenting unique quilting seminars around the country. Some of you have been to them. If you have, please add your comments to this blog for others to read. Because they are so unique, they are hard to describe. At these events you don't sew - you sit and listen. Hard to do? Not at all - not the way we present them. The information covered is equivalent to about two weeks of sit and sew classes.

However, we've increased the excitement for 2007 by launching the new Ricky Tims SUPER Quilt Seminars which will be held in major theaters and centers in four cities across the United States. Joining me on stage will be Alex Anderson and Libby Lehman. Each of us will share all our best secrets and most desired classes. You can read all about it - and download registration forms - at www.rickytims.com - see Seminars (there is a direct link to my site at the top of this page). It's the kind of an event to plan with your best quilting friends and make a weekend away. As these seminars are few and far between, we don't want you to be left out. The saddest emails I get are from quilters who heard about it after the fact - so dont miss it if you can at all help it. We would all love to see you there. Our target audience comes from about 3-5 hour drive from the seminar, but some folks fly in and make it a real quilting get-a-way.

We are so confident that you will find the Ricky Tims SUPER Quilt Seminars to be the worth your time and money, that, if you attend all the sessions and don't agree, we'll refund your entire registration fee! Here are the dates for 2007 - San Diego is coming in two months, so register soon for the small group discount.

March 29-31 - San Diego, CA
California Center for the Arts,
Escondido, CA

July 19-21 - Richmond, VA
Greater Richmond Convention Center
Richmond, VA

August 16-18 - Omaha, NE
Holland Performing Arts Center
Omaha, NE

September 13-15 - Knoxville, TN
Knoxville Civic Auditorium & Exhibit Hall
Knoxville, TN

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Just ask JOHN!!! Alex has been a blast to work with. We have the same vision and the same goals for sharing our passion for quilting with you! I know that seeing someone on TV can give a 'polished' and 'produced' image, but Alex is really just as charming in real life as she is on TV. - Maybe even more so!

Congratulations to ALL OF YOU! We topped 4000 members today - that's 4000 in 20 days! Whooo Hoo! So, here's the deal. POST YOUR PROFILES! The success of this site is user posted content. Your quilts and your profiles are what will make this site rich and fun. So, I need two commitements from you - easy to do - and costs you only a few minues of your time. Post your profile, including quilts, by going to Update My Profile on the Menu Bar. Then, email your friends and tell them about The Quilt Show. Can we reach 10,000 members by the time the first show 'airs'. I think so! There are 21 million quilters in the US with high speed - obviously that does NOT included quilters from foreign countries.

I'm NOT Free - but I am Cheap - AND easy!! This is a true story of Beauty and the Beast!

See you Online! Ricky 

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Stays - we'll on The Daily Blog.

I was teaching in Las Vegas. When I travel, usually Justin prepares boxes of fabrics to send ahead of time. We'll before the trip, we were looking for one of our dog's medical records so we could take him to the vet. You know how it goes - something is misplaced and so both blame it on the other. We'll that's what happened, but I swear for the life of me, I had not touched those records.

The night of my presentation, the guild helpers and myself were putting out the fabric before the meeting. In the bottom of the box that had been shipped were the medical records for the dog. Oaky - I did a little happy dance because I wasn't crazy - I hadn't touched them, but somehow, Justin had inadvertently dropped them in this box and they had long been gone to Las Vegas before they came up 'missing'. Our phone number was on the records.

My guild hostess decided to call Justin pretending to be a 'street girl' in Vegas. Ring Ring - "Hello Mr. Shults? Hi - I'm Bambi. I'm in Las Vegas. - Yes, Mr Shults - or can i call you Justin - I've just found your dogs medical records right here on the strip, and well, I thought you might want them. Oh Justin, you sure do sound cute! - yes, on the sidewalk outside of Caesars". -

Okay now - the kicker is that I shouldn't have been anywhere near the strip. - she contiues a while before I get on the phone. - It was a good joke. Anyway - Bambi is a quilter, not a street girl, and she's one of us - Find her in Member Search and send her an email. Tell her Francois says "hello".

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Justin (see previous post) and I own Tims Art Quilt Studio and Gallery in La veta, CO. The gallery is on the lower level and our offices and dye studios are on the upper level. We just closed a show called Expressions: The Art Quilt. That show will travel, but you can see it online at www.expressionsartquilt.com. Our new show, Winter Wonderland is posted at my site. Just click the link below my photo at the top of this page and you'll find the quilts.

Speaking of the gallery. It is the location where we will shoot The Quilt Show. Here's just a peek inside. We'll be shooting on March 9-11 and we hope many of you will consider coming to be part of our live - studio audience. Detals to follow.