HMMMM! You definitely must be a decendant of JOB. I know what you mean about painful. Ran a needle up under the bed of the nail and right up through the top. Thought I was going to lose the nail and the finger. If the needle is hard for me to push through I don't use it. I have learned also to take a couple small 2"-3" squares of the material I'm going to use and see how the needles push through then decide from that point how I want to move forward.