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Nease's Needlework was started on May Day 1999 by Susan Nease, but the history goes back a lot longer than that. 345 West Ponce de Leon Ave has been a needlework shop since the early 1970's when Georgia Dennis opened Dennis Art Needlework. It was back when Susan Nease was thirteen that she began her lessons... Little did she know that someday she would work for Mrs. Dennis on Saturdays and after school. Susan is an Alumna of Decatur High School and except for her college education at Earlam College in Indiana she has been here in the Atlanta area for her whole life. I was lucky enough to have married her in 1992 whereupon we lived in Midtown near Piedmont Park and she decided that she would work for Mrs. Dennis again, retracing her roots from whence she came. Not too long after, Mrs. Dennis was intimating that she wanted to retire and sell the business and that she needed someone she could trust to extend the legacy. Susan began in earnest to learn the business. She was already an accomplished cross stitcher and needlepointer, and had experience with just about everything else, knitting, tatting, crochet and such. But Mrs. Dennis had other plans... Susan would learn to do finishing work, pillows, framing, Christmas stockings, bell pulls, footstools, and a myriad of little boxes and just about anything else that could be blocked, cleaned, matted, sewn or stuffed. Susan spent several years under Georgia's tutalage, when Georgia said it was "time". Georgia and her husband Jerry were to move to Florida to retire, and the moment of truth had come. Time for Susan and me to dig into our life savings and spring for a business of our own... Susan's really. So, she met a woman to make a logo and used it to make a sign and on that spring day she quit her job at International Banking Technologies and became her own boss, employee #1 for Nease's Needlework. The new hours she had set for the store would have to be worked alone, and it was clear from the beginning, that would have to change. Nothing is worse for a customer than getting lost in a chain store with no one in sight to help you... except perhaps the same situation in a small home-town store. She would have none of that. Being the kind of place that attracts creative people, she made all sorts of new friends that were willing to help out, so she hired some of them. Clare was one of the first, but her young age didn't fool anyone. She, like her boss before her, attended Decatur High. She was a calm empath who is always busy. She has quite an eye for color and texture and has proven time after time that she knows what she is doing. Her eagerness to help people that want it is only matched by by the numerous people willing to listen to her. Alas, Clare graduated from Decatur High and now attends Agnes Scott College. She doesn't work at Nease's anymore, but we see her and her mom Claudia now and then nonetheless! As all teenage apprentices had to do, Clare was charged with filling her soon-to-be absent place with another teenager. She brought in Alisa Sanford, who worked for three years while attending Decatur High School, and developed her organizational skills. She is a very dedicated worker who has begun attending Georgia State University and still drops by occasionally to spend some time. Look for Ally on Saturdays especially - she often runs the floor while Susan is in the back finishing a framing job for a customer! Other names and faces you might have seen over the years have belonged to Diane, who brought a lot of retail experience to the shop, and Vicki, who was the teenage apprentice that Ally brought over from Decatur. Polly is Vicki's friend and she was a great help, but then, sometimes life takes over a job in a needlework shop! Margaret was a top-notch knitter and needlepointer. Gwen was a delight to have as a worker - she loves to knit and just brought that enthusiasm with her every time she came in the shop. She especially loved that wonderful Icelandic wool, Lopi, and turned a lot of Atlanta knitters onto its versatility and warmth. And we had Jenny for a while, and Laura, and even Jane when she needed a job to fill her days. Currently we have a great staff who make Susan's life a ton easier: Brooke, who teaches seminars, and Peyton, who also teaches seminars, and Stacy who knits up a storm, and Carrie who can sell practically anything. Peyton often brings her daughter, and even Carrie's sons show up sometimes to liven up the atmosphere. Kelly helped out a lot in the Christmas season, Ally's still on Saturdays, and even Sharon spends several Saturdays a month at the shop, when she's not recapturing fruitflies or attending her fiance's gigs. And if you see a slightly confused fellow behind the cash register on a busy Saturday, or cutting mats in the back, that would be Webmaster Bill. Give him a hand for all the behind-the-scenes work he's done to make this website the success that it is!