From the Editor

Last fall in Reno, Nevada, I walked through the American Needlepoint Guild's National Exhibit. It is always inspiring to see so much beautiful needlepoint and so much diversity under one roof. As I walked along, savoring this plethora of creativity, I found myself standing in front of a rather different piece of needlework. When I looked at Americana I felt my emotions short circuit. I don't know how long I stood there nor exactly when the tears started. I knew what the artist, Norman Delue, was saying in stitches! He captured the spirit of America - from his tribute to the great city of New York on 9-11 (shown in the first band, Urbanville, USA) to the last band, We The People, which shows our strength in our diversity. In Norm's words: "We stand together: male and female, representing the arts, academics, military, professional, musician, medical, farmer and sports. We are strong enough to stand together and shout: "We're proud to be an American." How fortunate we are that this gracious gentleman is willing to share his creation with us. This will be our new continuing feature presented in several installments. You will also get to meet the newest member of our staff, Elizabeth Bozievich, who will be bringing us various types of articles throughout the year. We welcome both and look forward to working with them.

Jane Nichols is always a favorite designer for us. This time she shares her handsome box top, Tic, Tac, Toe Sampler. Dawn Donnelly is a new designer for us. I think you will enjoy working her Petite Passion. The project appears to be simple and straight forward. However, when you work it you will find a little different twist is given to some old favorite stitches. Peg Dunayer shares a colorful Fireworks Pinwheel in her Little Bits feature and Robin Berry offers us an Acorn Bookmark with her Historic Needlework feature. Ann Caswell highlights the talents of Lois Caron in Noteworthy and New and Ann Blalock keeps us laughing with more escapades from The Stitching Fool. Amy Bunger discusses how to stitch designs of fabric on canvas and Tony Minieri begins to teach us how to stitch flowers. Pamela Godderis continues her great series on color with Let's Talk Orange and Suzanne Howren educates us with her excellent reviews in From the Bookshelf. Jody's Needlepoint Excitement takes us on a sentimental journey with needlework from a time gone by. Gretchen Janesak debuts Tool Tips which we will print from time to time. You will not want to miss Patty's Story and be inspired by this spunky stitcher.

I love hearing from you and thank you for taking the time and energy to contact us. I appreciate your excitement over our last issue. So many of you wrote, called and emailed us to comment on the cover and beauty of Brenda Hart's project as well as the crisp look of our format. You also asked what happened to my photo and suggested that I bring it back. The photo I was using was not a new one and I didn't want to become the "Dear Abby" of the needlework world. It took a while, but we do have a brand new one to replace the old. My grateful thanks go to our Art Director, John Linthicum, who shot this photo in the office.

The rain has finally stopped and it is a lovely spring afternoon in Virginia. I'm taking the top down and driving home! I hope your days are also filled with sunshine and happy thoughts.

Joyce Lukomski

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Last Updated August 10, 2005