The day was blistering hot – 111 degrees at 3:00 p.m. – with no breeze at all.  I had driven for three hours to get here to Redding, and I was tired, hot, and ready to sit and feed my soul with beautiful quilts and Ricky’s music.  As I walked into the meeting hall, it hadn’t cooled off much.  But there it was – my eyes were pulled directly to THE QUILT --  “Tango” -- created by Ricky Tims.

Ricky had done a series of quilts based on the theme of Harmonic Convergence.  Since they related to music and movement, they were named for dances.  Now, I was familiar with Ricky – I had taken a class from him previously and was an admirer of his work.  I’d even seen “Tango” before – and I owned all of his CDs -- but for some reason, that hot July night, “Tango” was beckoning to me.  I couldn’t take my eyes away from it for very long.

As Ricky related the story of his Granny, Bertie Marie, my mind went back in time to thoughts of my grandmothers:  my paternal grandmother, Marguerite Moore, who raised her family of seven children with only the assistance of her sister, and my maternal grandmother, Hattie Elalia Giltner, who had lost three husbands, each one killed by a horse, yet she raised five children with my grandfather before he was killed.  Both ladies lived in southern Iowa during the Great Depression, and neither lady lived in the lap of luxury, so to speak, but did the best they could with what they had. 

Ricky’s grandmother and grandfather had similar circumstances – I felt a rapport with Ricky and that quilt that I had not expected nor felt before. When he announced that “Tango” was for sale, my heart started beating faster and faster – and then he told why it was for sale.

He is building a cabin on his property at Autumn Rock that will be a memorial to his Granny.  He wanted a copper roof, but the price was too high, so he decided to sell a quilt for the cost of the roof.  He told me later he had the feeling that someone out there would want or need that quilt.  He didn’t know who or where – and I didn’t know I would ever have the opportunity to own one of his works of art.

But Fate intervened, as it has been wont to do many times in my life.  

The rest of the story?  I purchased "Tango," display it lovingly and proudly in my home, and share it with many of my audiences as an example of generational love and what expert quilting should look like.  Ricky has finished the cabin, and its copper roof is gorgeous.  See it at www.rickytims.com.  Click on Enter, then Autumn Rock, then scroll down to The Bertie Marie photo.  Ricky, thank you for putting such love and beauty in your quilts, and for sharing them with the rest of us.