It's easy to sit on the sidelines.

Make no mistake, putting yourself out in the arena of life, is not always comfortable. It's not always fun.

Being in the arena for me, means showing up at places like the International Quilt Festival in Houston. As a teacher. This is an arena that takes hours of preparation. I spend a couple weeks planning my classes, gathering my supplies, practicing my Keynotes. Secretly, I think I'd rather be at home making some art. But I know that I also need the exposure to this world, and I need to know what other people are doing and how they're thinking about what they're doing.

I'm always amazed at the talent, the skill of the people around me, interesting stories that workshop participants share with me. And teaching anything is really the best way to master it.

I started teaching here relatively late, 2008. Relatively late compared to most of the teachers around me at any rate. I still feel like the new kid on the block. It's getting easier, and I have a few more friends, and I recognize people across the room. But, no matter how it looks from the outside, I think all of us have a few flutters when we have to sit down at a table with a bunch of people we don't know.

The most difficult part of doing this work, here in this arena, is getting back that little stack of critiques at the end of every workshop.

I don't know why it is, but it's human nature to focus on the two or three in the batch that have something really critical to say about what you did. in my case, it's always something about organization. I try, I really try, and I listen to the critiques (this next workshop is going to be better than the last). But it's very interesting that it's hard to give all of the wonderful comments as much weight as I do the two or three or four from people who weren't very happy.

So how do you grow that thick skin?