{"id":2572,"date":"2013-12-04T08:13:41","date_gmt":"2013-12-04T13:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=2572"},"modified":"2013-12-04T11:47:55","modified_gmt":"2013-12-04T16:47:55","slug":"a-shoebox-of-hand-sewing-needles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=2572","title":{"rendered":"A Shoebox of Hand Sewing Needles!"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the Southern Cross Quilters list this morning a member was telling how she helped a family clear out and dispose of their recently deceased mother’s quilting books and ‘stash’ – the umbrella term for a quilter’s\u00a0collection of fabrics, and it really includes everything else used to make patchwork quilts, like\u00a0threads, machine and hand sewing needles.\u00a0 The lady was obviously a keen hand sewer, as exquisite embroidery patterns and\u00a0items were mentioned, too.\u00a0 And then\u00a0she said there was a shoe box\u00a0almost filled with hand sewing needles !! Now that would be something!\u00a0<\/em><\/span>\u00a0 Clearly this woman\u00a0had always\u00a0planned ahead, determined\u00a0that no shortage, no siege or any other factor relating to ‘needles’\u00a0would ever prevent her from continuing a project.\u00a0 I’m guessing many of them would be very old, and wrapped in that black paper that helps prevent rust.\u00a0There are still a few needle producing companies that present their product this way – old fashioned, but they tend to be high quality, too.<\/p>\n

The whole concept of needles in a packet and planning ahead reminded me of my first shopping for needles here in Uruguay, in about 1998.\u00a0 I was running low on the few I’d brought over from Australia and would need a new pack of sharps.\u00a0 Back then, with my limited Spanish and no small amount of bravery, I tracked down a notions shop, a merceria, and managed to convey that I wanted to buy a packet of needles about so-long (imagine hand and finger movements here).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The lady asked “How many?” I replied “One packet please” and she repeated “How many” and added “needles?”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What??? Now, thinking fast on my feet, I said the first number that came into my head , which was three, so, much to my astonishment,\u00a0three sharps were duly laid out on a small piece of paper<\/span><\/em> which was folded around them and a piece oftape applied to keep it all\u00a0together.\u00a0 Things have changed and packets of needles are available even in supermarkets now.\u00a0 Lots of very interesting little shops have gone, though.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"needle<\/a><\/p>\n

So here’s my very modest stash in Uruguay – I have more but far fewer in Aus – it’s a Girl Guide Be Prepared prepared thing in case I am not able to find the quality and brands I know here – so\u00a0 I buy a pack or two every time I go back to Aus, along with the Gravox and Vegemite – they’re equally important to me!\u00a0 Anything else, even decent tea, you can get here.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
After all, there’s no joy in using a worn out needle;\u00a0 the points blunt\u00a0in time,\u00a0 the shine\u00a0can go\u00a0so that it doesn’t slide through the fabric easily, and machine needles can develop a burr or break fairly easily.\u00a0 No needle situation will ever prevent me from finishing off a quilt \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the Southern Cross Quilters list this morning a member was telling how she helped a family clear out and dispose of their recently deceased mother’s quilting books and ‘stash’ – the umbrella term for a quilter’s\u00a0collection of fabrics, and it really includes everything else used to make patchwork quilts, like\u00a0threads, machine and hand sewing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6uxpF-Fu","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2572"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2581,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2572\/revisions\/2581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}