A very dear friend of mine, Margene Smith, piqued my interest in Japanese Embroidery.  I was so impressed by her needlepoint stitching and wanted to learn how to create "perfect" canvases like she did.  She mentioned that her stitching improved greatly once she learned Japanese Embroidery, so I signed up to take a course at NAN in 1999.  Wow, what an experience!  Not only did my needlepoint skills improve, but I fell in love with this art form and started down a path I hope never to leave.  Since that time, I've completed phases I through IV and ventured out on my own to design a piece using Japanese Embroidery techniques.

"The Flight to Egypt" was entered into the 2005 Exhibit at Callaway School of Needle arts and took third place in the Embroidery Category.  Imagine that--my first award ever in the needle arts.  This piece was a labor of love as I attempted to adapt a design from a Christmas Card I had received in 2003, and put into practice all I had learned from Jennifer Ashley Taylor over the past six years.

I'm hooked on Japanese Embroidery so much so that I am always looking for new designs to create from greeting cards, calendars and pictures that friends and acquaintances send me (I've gotten them hooked also)..

Althea DeBrule