Each year at The Exemplary, the Best of Show (Jean Taggart Award) is selected from First Place winners in all categories except Japanese Embroidery. The 2026 Best of Show winner is A Spring Sampler stitched by Melita Glalvin. Here is Melita’s artist statement:

Carolyn Mitchell held an excellent Cyberworkshop titled Making Stitches Work For You, and her challenge to create our own design resulted in this piece. But it was not just her influence that helped create this design. She was one of several design classes I have had with other wonderful teachers including Mary Shipp, Liz Morrow, Pat Mazu, Orna Willis, Kathy Rees, Cynthia Thomas, Catherine Jordan, and Kurdy Biggs. I have enjoyed learning and growing from these teachers who candidly share their knowledge and encourage students. Whether the classes have been in person, via correspondence, or online, each has been an excellent experience.

A Spring Sampler is a symmetrical band sampler that uses different stitches in each of the 21 bands. To create additional symmetry, the stitches for bands on either side of the center band are related and use 13 threads. This pattern of related bands continues as the bands progress outwards. There is really no concept drawing other than stating the band heights (from top to bottom) are: 3, 12, 6, 3, 6, 18, 3, 9, 2, 4, 30, 4, 2, 9, 3, 18, 6, 3, 6, 12, 3. The colorway is based on one overdyed thread.

Several motifs, including the center band, are modified from focal point patterns provided by Kathy Rees in her Designing Geometric Samplers 2018 American Needlepoint Guild Seminar class materials. The center band is primarily a decorative Plaited Ray stitch from Stimulating Stitches by Jean Hilton. Since seven units of the center Band 11 motif do not cover the 216-canvas thread width, border stitches covering three canvas threads are on each side. This is the only band that requires border stitches. I selected the rest of the stitches for the bands so that the number of motifs within each band divided into 216 evenly (12, 18, 24, 36, 54, or 72) to add to the symmetry of the design. Additional resources I used included Needlepoint Stitches by Jean Hilton, The Encyclopedia of Canvas Embroidery Stitch Patterns by Katherine Ireys, Painted Canvas Embellishment: An Idea Book by Carole Lake and Michael Boren, A Pageant of Pattern for Needlepoint Canvas by Sherlee Lantz and Maggie Lane, Grab -n- Go Stitches by the Lone Star Chapter of the American Needlepoint Guild, and Shapes of Needlepoint Series 1 by Sandy Arthur. For some patterns, I made a variation of the stitch to fit my space requirement.