Here’s a subject that should be dear the heart of any embroiderer: eyesight.

We often talk about all the tools and accessories and favorite little things that make needlework enjoyable for us. But, hands down, the Most Important tools we have are built right in and we take them with us everywhere. We could not do the needlework we do without our very precious eyes.

I have lousy eyesight, and it’s been that way ever since I can remember seeing things (or rather, not seeing them). My first glasses came about when I first went to school and the teacher realized I couldn’t see the board.

I remember as a kid going to church and staring at a huge stain glass window and being mesmerized by the colors that all swirled together. I could move my eyes and my head around, squinting, and make the colors blend and move. It was all just color to me. There were no pictures. It wasn’t until I had my first pair of glasses that I realized there was actually a story to see in that window.

The drive home from the optometrist when we picked up my first pair of glasses was an eye-opener, too. It was the first time I actually saw, from a distance, leaves on trees – and it just happened to be fall in New England. That drive home is seared in my brain. I can close my eyes and see it as clearly now as I saw it then.

The upshot is this: glasses – or the equivalent – have been a necessary part of my life since then.

In fact, I’m going I’m going to the optometrist today.