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2002 November/December

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Editor's Column

Can you believe that the holiday season is upon us? What a wonderful and glorious time it is! We will help you celebrate this special season with several designs for your stitching fun. Joan Thomasson's beautiful Russian Santa captures the grandeur of the holidays and the novel Ooh! Christmas Tree by Jane Nichols lends a different approach to the stitching. Northern Lights by Kathy Smith is a quick and fun project to work. We had planned to present Noel Nook which is the first installment of Gail Sirna's Christmas in the City. This innovative creation offers buildings which can be stitched individually as ornaments or grouped together into one complete and beautiful design of a city. However, best laid plans do go astray when they extend to five pages in an already-tight issue. We regret that we had to put this new feature on hold until our next issue.

Three continuing features were also put on hold because of space limitations. We look forward to the regular columns by Ann Caswell, Tony Minieri, and Jody Valentine in January/February 2003. All of our feature writers are the backbone of this publication and we are so grateful for the sharing and generous attitude and excellent work ethic. We give warm thanks to each one.

We present the fourth installment of our continuing feature Contemporary Bargello. This issue also features the sixth and final installment of our popular Mystery Sampler. Now that this "mystery" has been solved, look for more exciting stitcheries to come from the talented hand of Nanette Costa.

Our goal is to offer exciting stitching projects to our readers of all levels of skill and taste. Some of us like to work from charted stitchery where there is a master chart and every stitch in the project is diagramed there. Some of us would rather work from a drawing and trace the outline of the design on our own canvas and fit the suggested stitches into the various areas. This manner of working is a little more creative, but it does require compensation and judgments that must be made by each stitcher. When you work in this fashion, your finished project may not be the exact carbon copy of the pictured design and that is fine as long as you enjoy the work and like the result. Personally, I like both ways of stitching. If I am really tired when I get to pick up the needle, I prefer to work on a fully charted pattern so that I can just relax and will not have to make tough decisions. However, on a day when I have lots of energy, I love the challenge of making those decisions and of finding the best way to fit my stitches into a given space.

How well I remember exactly one year ago when I sat at this desk tearfully writing my "holiday" editorial. The shock of 9/11 was so new and raw and emotions of an entire country were so high. A full year has passed since that fateful time. I think that as a nation we feel a bit older, maybe a little wiser and we no longer take our great freedoms for granted. We may be a little more cautious, but we are still flag-waving Americans who will always give an even break and champion the downtrodden. As we approach the joyous times of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, I hope that once again we can look into our hearts and strive to reach into our depths as we work for harmony and understanding with all peoples of our own nation and the world over. May we realize that which unites us comes from a Supreme Being and that which divides us is from man. May we continue to honor each other and to seek the things that unite us. May we continue to strive to be brave, to be just and to be wise. May you find good health, good friends, good family times, peace and joy in 2003. Hold close to the things that are most excellent - your God, your family and friends and your country. Happy holidays!

Joyce Lukomski

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