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From "American Quilter" Magazine, Fall 2006:
While walking in the town of Pueblo, Colorado, Ricky spotted a dragon image in the iron grillwork at an old post office. Intrigued, he took a picture of this dragon thinking it might be a good quilting motif. But eventually the quilting motif became an idea for and appliqué design that was manipulated to fit the center space of this quilt. This dragon led to many more.
Ricky often works in a style he calls "Rhapsody quilts," where he divides the basic outline of the quilt into four quadrants, reversing and mirror-imaging the design. In this piece four more dragons were outline-appliquéd in a semicircle around the center dragon. Ricky's signature curves and points flowed from there. “I like to make easy quilts that look difficult,” he says modestly.
The machine quilting took on a life of its own when he designed 32 dragon motifs to fit various spaces and shapes. Bending and interconnecting them was a challenge. Ricky marks the patterns precisely and uses a water-soluble stabilizer and thread to prepare for the actual quilting.
The quilting community has the world's best people," states Ricky, "and I'm so glad to be a part of it!" With this in mind, Ricky also admits to being influenced by living in southern Colorado, which he finds restful, environmentally beautiful, and filled with native culture.