The TALE of the Needles

Gather all 'round while I tell you my tale~

As I am busily working on the quilt below I found that the needle I was using was very bent.  I opened my package of needles to find I only had two left.  Now, no one wants to be in the middle of a project only to find they have to get up and go to the store for a needed notion.  No, no.  I needed to get some new needles NOW before I used up my meager supply.

So I went to my local quilt shop, the place where I always buy these needles, so I could quickly replenish my reserve and skip happily out of the store.

BUT WAIT!  The didn't have any Richard Hemming & Son Betweens size 10 needles on the rack.  GASP!!  Now, what am I going to do?

I went to another quilt store with the same results.

I decided I didn't want to go from store to store (you're saying I could have called first) only to not find any needles of the brand I prefer in the right size.

So, I contacted my faithful friend Amazon and ordered the needles below.

I ordered one  package of Richard Hemming needles that come 20 to a package.

I ordered one tube of Roxanne needles that come 50 to a package.

I have heard that Roxanne's needles are quite good and decided to try them.  If I didn't like them for quilting, I can always use them for regular sewing; buttons, binding, basting, etc.

I received what I thought was a large package for just needles in the mail.  Inside was one flat package of Richard Hemming needles that was loose inside the box and another small box.

I opened the other box. . .

and found inside not one package of Roxanne's needles but six packages!!! 

That 320 needles total!

I quickly got online to check and see if I had ordered 6 tubes of needles.  I hadn't, I had ordered one package of the RH needles and one tube of Roxanne needles.  All I can figure out is that the person who was taking the items off of the shelf read one for the quantity and reached up and got one BOX to put in the mail.

Now, the other part of the story.

I have a friend that goes to Yuma AZ, (we live near Salt Lake City in northern Utah) each January because she has terrible asthma and the air quality in this valley can get really bad during the winter.  She was on her way to Yuma, alone, driving a truck and a 5th wheel trailer.  She periodically texts me to let me know where she is and hopefully tell me she is fine.

The first night she texted; "I'm in Mesquite (NV) and it's raining really hard but I'm fine and will spend the night.

The next evening as I'm going through my needles fiasco and wondering what in the dickens I'm going to do with all those needles, I received this text.

"Hi, I'm in Needles (CA).  I'm tired but fine.

I texted back something like, "YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT BUT, I'M IN NEEDLES TOO!!!!!!

Life certainly has it's own amusements doesn't it?

Robin