Needles Down

When I was teaching one of my workshops in Sacramento, we had several giggles over me trying to adopt methods of getting everyone's attention while they were at their machines. So we eventually went with me saying NEEDLES DOWN as if they were taking a final exam. While most everyone thought it was funny, there were definitely some sad faces at that command every now and then (but that was sorta funny too- I say that out of love). Late last night after a very long day when I could barely keep my eyes open, I had to say out loud to myself, needle down, Anna. Once you find yourself in the process of having several works in progress, as I always do-whether book developing or not- you become aware that picking the needle up is no longer the hard part. Learning new stitches, trying different techniques and materials can be challenging. But stopping before I see a certain flower (or some other fancy) fully realized still proves to be the greater challenge.

Okay, needles up. xoAnna