Ricky Tims — Musician, Quiltmaker, Educator, Storyteller
Ricky Tims is an internationally recognized contemporary quiltmaker, musician, educator, and multidisciplinary artist whose creative career bridges music, quilting, photography, and storytelling. Known for combining innovation with tradition, Ricky has built a body of work that celebrates both artistic exploration and meaningful human connection.
His award-winning quilts are exhibited worldwide and held in permanent collections including the International Quilt Museum, the National Quilt Museum, and the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, along with numerous private collections. In 2025, his quilt The Visitation received Best of Show at the International Quilt Festival in Houston — one of the highest honors in the quilting world.
Ricky began designing and making quilts in 1991 and transitioned from a professional music career to quilting full-time in 1998. Since then, he has taught in more than twenty countries on six continents, sharing not only technical expertise but a philosophy grounded in creative courage, curiosity, and self-expression. Audiences around the world appreciate his ability to blend live music, humor, and storytelling into presentations that feel both inspiring and deeply personal, creating a welcoming space for makers at every stage of their journey.
He has been named one of the Thirty Most Distinguished Quilters in the World, was featured on CBS News Sunday Morning, and was selected by readers of Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine (in a three-way tie) the most influential person in the quilting industry.
Ricky is co-founder and co-host of The Quilt Show, the pioneering online television program for quilters, which he co-hosts with Alex Anderson. The show has produced over 450 episodes since it launched in 2007. Through his teaching platform, Let’s Quilt Together, he continues to mentor and inspire a global creative community through online classes, seminars, and live events.
Long before quilting became his primary artistic focus, music shaped Ricky’s creative life. Beginning formal piano study at age three, he has worked as a pianist, composer, arranger, conductor, and recording artist. His performances and lectures often integrate live piano with storytelling and humor, reflecting a lifelong belief that creativity thrives when disciplines overlap.
An avid photographer and educator, Ricky also teaches visual composition and creative seeing through his photography programs and community workshops. He is co-author (with Kat Bowser) of the fantasy novel Lizzy Albright and the Attic Window.
Ricky and his husband, Hugo Dos Santos, relocated to Branson West, Missouri in 2025, where he continues to create, teach, compose, create, lead workshops, in pursuit of his lifelong goals and dreams.
Ricky Tims Chronology
Born March 11, 1956
Lived in Wichita Falls , TX until 1985
High School – S. H. Rider High School – Wichita Falls
University – Midwestern State University – Wichita Falls
Lived in Waco , TX 1985-1988
Lived in St. Louis , MO 1988-2000
Lived in Arvada , CO 2000-2003
Moved to La Veta in December of 2003
Moved to a remote area in Huerfano County near La Veta, Colorado in 2018.
Currently resides in Branson West, MO
