Creative Way Needlepoint is located in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. We are a full service shop under the same management for over twenty five years.

Creative Way is owned and operated by Hank Wilson & Ricki Petersen. Stop in and meet us.

We offer hand painted needlepoint, threads, finishing services and artist on premises, framing, leather belt finishing, everything you need for your needlepoint.

We believe your needlework is a reflection of your creativity and deserves all the time and attention required to transform it into something special for you and your world. We also believe it is worth the time at the idea stage of your project to set it up properly. This will give you better finished results. For you impetuous types, we have a great selection of take-away ready “stock” needlepoint designs, perfect for those of you coming from any distance or embarking on your trip tomorrow.

Ricki Petersen has been stitching since she was 12 years old. Her first project was a cat pillow in colors to go with her room. While in college in California, she began to experiment and design her own series of red and blue canvases, something she thinks, despite her art background, now will be better left to Hank, her designing husband.

Here, Ricki is working on a rug

Ricki and Hank met during graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. He was studying to become an architect and she an art historian and it was kismet, the Wild West coast (Ricki) meets east coast civility (Hank).

After marrying Hank and settling down in Bryn Mawr to raise a family, Ricki wanted to make stitching a permanent facet of her life, and so Creative Way Needlepoint became her passion. She was happy to walk to work and work for the continuing support of the Bryn Mawr retail community.

Ricki has become the finisher for Creative Way. She learned how to sew in junior high school while in Japan(taught by the family seamstress who did not speak English). Ricki has turned this skill into brilliant solutions for needlepoint. Chalice, matzo, or prayer book covers are turned out as beautifully as pillows, baby slippers, talus bags, Christmas stockings and ornaments, rugs, cummerbunds, coasters, eyeglass cases or whatever the project.

Ricki really wants you to know that the difference between handmade and homemade is in the quality of the finishing.

Hank at work on a church kneeler

Hank Wilson is a second-generation architect who has been painting custom needlepoint since 1989. He is local boy.Twenty years of experience with customers and designing makes Hank very adept at translating ideas into stitchable images.

Hank is also very involved int he community. As President of Bryn Mawr Beautiful Foundation he has been responsible for the main street flower basket program for the last ten years, as well as maintaining our rear patio garden, our morning coffee spot. His interest in flowers allows him to create unique floral pieces for customers, as perfect accents, a pillow or bell pull, brick or a series for dining room chairs. In addition he is well known for his pet portraits and unique belts.

Hank always says: “It’s needlepoint, you can’t make a mistake.”

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