I know this. I tell my students this every day - especially when they're frustrated at their inability to do what they wish they could. I tell them we are all beginners at first and, that with time, patience, perseverance and practice, they will improve, gain skill and understanding and become more competent. So why can't I heed to my own advice?Possibly because after 55 years and 1 day I'm not used to being a beginner at very many things any more. All my life I've learned new instruments and have always thought I was good at learning something new. Learning a new instrument went easily and I enjoyed the challenge of a new way of making music - new fingerings, new notation systems, new techniques. What I didn't recognize until now was that these new instruments were really just a variation on the theme of music making. I already had vast skill and each new instrument augmented that skill. It was NOT the same as learning something completely new.

The first step in taking it all out - cutting the threads - carefully!

As I've worked on those pesky marguerite petals, the realization has dawned on me that my skills are minuscule in comparison to those masters of embroidery. I have a huge amount to learn but, more importantly, a great deal of experience to gather before I can be confident and artistic in my stitching.I was perusing Trish Burr's web site the other day in anticipation of her new book and noticed a link that I'd not seen before called Trish Burr Older Works. I clicked on the link, thinking I would be taken to see her older designs, but no, I was taken to see photographs of her beginning work - before she became a master of her art. It's worth looking at to see how very, very far she has come in her journey to becoming a master of her art.

Picking out the threads with tweezers - a brilliant tool!

A few of you have commented that I am brave to show my work in progress or my less than perfect work and I appreciate those comments very much. Part of being a good teacher is sharing your own journey as you strive to learn and then master a skill. You've heard that we all learn from our mistakes but we also learn from the mistakes of our teachers - if they are wise enough to share them with us.The skills of a master or a teacher should be something a student strives for. The teacher's work should be of a higher quality and greater skill. But it should never seem unattainable. It's so important for teachers to share their own struggles, frustrations and the elation of success with their students. Learning is something we do. It doesn't just happen magically. People who seem to be gifted are often simply in love with what they're doing and want to do it as well as possible. Because they love it, they do it all the time - every spare minute they can find. They may appear gifted when in fact, I believe, they are so highly motivated that they put in more time than most and, as a result, develop their skills faster and to a higher degree than the "normal" student, hence appearing gifted.

This is all that's left of that marguerite.

I believe it's about passion and joy: the passion to do the thing you love and as a consequence get better and better at it and the joy you experience as you immerse yourself in experiencing that passion.With these thoughts, on to putting back stitches that have been taken out - more beautifully and with a little more skill.