Autobiography and Biography
Autobiography
Born in 1956 and raised mid-century modern, I had a head start on creativity. I always had the big box of 64 Crayons, huge pads of paper and parents who valued creativity and a sense of humor. Daddy was an IBM exec who broke out of his dark suits and white shirts on the weekends to don Ricky Ricardo shirts, jump in his latest sports car and wield his latest camera in the search of some artistic outlet in his corporate life. Mother dabbled in numerology, painted, longed for clothes straight from Vogue and made them all herself. My favorite creation was a pink mini-dress with marabou feathers sewn to the bottom to make a tiny skirt. We lived in a modern house in Bartlesville, Oklahoma with flip down appliances and all aqua and red furnishings.
My maternal grandmother owed her own business, but made all of her own clothes and reupholstered her own modern sectional furniture many times over the years. That sofa is in my daughter’s house now and needing a new cover. My paternal grandmother spoiled me and taught me all the needle arts from knitting to rug hooking.
We were moved often over the years as I grew up and I was constantly being exposed to different types of people and absorbing new ideas. It was fertile ground for a young person searching for a voice. My brother is the poet Brent Hendricks.
I attended Emory University at 17, met my future husband at 18 and became a teacher after graduation. When I was 24 years old, we married and moved to New Orleans where I worked as a high school teacher in the pubic school system. We had a daughter five years later and a son in 1987. In 1992 we moved to London, where I completed my City and Guilds in Patchwork and Quilting and in Design.
In 1993, we moved to Copenhagen where I wrote my book Quick Quilting. I entered and won prizes at my first quilt competitions, the National Patchwork Championships in the UK and the American Quilt Society show in Paducah, Kentucky. In 1995, we returned to the US to Connecticut and in 1996 we landed in Houston, the home of the International Quilt Festival. Since my return to the states, I have concentrated all my energy in the studio and in getting my work out to the public. I also help promote the art of the quilt with my volunteer work for the International Quilt Association and Studio Art Quilt Associates and through my work as Co-Director of the national touring exhibition Fine Focus.
I live in Houston with my husband, my 3 cats and my 2 dogs. My two kids are off at college at UT and A&M so I have a renewed commitment and energy for my work.
Biography
Artist Kim H. Ritter, M.ED., holds her City and Guilds Certificates in Patchwork and Quilting and in Design from the London Institute of the Arts. She has art quilts in private and corporate collections worldwide including the Quilts, Inc. Corporate Collection. Her work has appeared in Fiberarts Magazine, American Craft Magazine, Quilting Arts Magazine and FiberArts Design Book Six. Simply Quilts and NHK TV Japan have run TV segments on Ritter’s artwork. Kim is the author of Quick Quilting, a book for beginning quilters that has been published in four countries and translated into German and Russian.
She has been named a Texas Original Artist by the
Selected international and national exhibitions which have toured Ritter’s work include “Quilt National 05”, “Women of Biblical Proportions” “Spirit & Strength: 2003 The Husqvarna Viking Gallery of Quilt Art,” “I Remember Mama,” “Fine Focus 02,04 and 06,” “Tarot Art Quilt Project,” “A Page from My Journal,” “911: Las Artistas Reaccionan,” “Masterpieces: A Voyage of Self Expression,” “America: From the Heart,” and “The Roots of Racism: Fear and Ignorance
Ritter serves as Co-Director and Curator of Fine Focus 06, 04 and Fine Focus 02, small format art quilt exhibits which tour museums nationally for two years. She was this year’s Juror for Celebrate Spring at the International Quilt Festival in