About Our Story
Remembering Ricki
Ricki Petersen began stitching when she was 12 years old. Her first project was a cat pillow in colors chosen to match her room. While in college in California, she began designing her own canvases, including a series in red and blue. Despite her art background, though, she always said designing was best left to Hank.
Ricki and Hank met in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was studying architecture and she was studying art history. It was kismet: the Wild West Coast (Ricki) met East Coast civility (Hank).
After they married and settled in Bryn Mawr to raise a family, Ricki wanted stitching to be a permanent part of her life, and Creative Way Needlepoint became her passion. She loved walking to work, and she was a devoted supporter of the Bryn Mawr retail community.
Ricki was the shop's finisher. She learned to sew in junior high school while living in Japan, where the family seamstress taught her without speaking a word of English. Ricki turned that skill into brilliant solutions for needlepoint. She finished chalice, matzo, and prayer book covers as beautifully as pillows, baby slippers, tallis bags, Christmas stockings and ornaments, rugs, cummerbunds, coasters, eyeglass cases, and whatever else came through the door.
Ricki always wanted you to know that the difference between handmade and homemade is in the quality of the finishing. That belief remains at the heart of everything we do.
"Needlepoint is Forever"
Meet Hank
Hank Wilson is a local boy and a second-generation architect who has been painting custom needlepoint since 1989. Decades of designing for customers have made him especially skilled at translating ideas into stitchable images.
Hank is also deeply involved in the community. As President of the Bryn Mawr Beautiful Foundation, he has led the Main Street flower basket program for more than ten years, and he tends the shop's rear patio garden, which is our morning coffee spot. His love of flowers inspires unique floral pieces for customers, whether a pillow, a bell pull, a brick, a series for dining room chairs, or just the perfect accent. He is also well known for his pet portraits and one-of-a-kind belts.
As Hank always says:
"It's Needlepoint. You can't make a mistake."
