In Plain Sight

Maxwell Smart saw it long before we did!

This little incident happened a couple of weeks ago after coming home from a lovely visit with our favorite sewing teacher, Mrs. Nagy.

First, let me back-up a few weeks. When we started taking sewing lessons together, we had a very serious conversation about keeping needles in a safe place. Needles are never left unattended unless they are stuck through the fabric of the project being worked on. We have very thick beige carpeting in our family room and one little slip-up could end-up in a foot. Mr. Wonderful told us the story of a lost needle that found its way into his foot when he was a young boy. Not a pleasant experience, for sure. Everyone understood the importance of adhering to the "needle rule."

OK, so back to our story. After coming home from our time together with Mrs. Nagy, Rachel wanted to show her father what she had accomplished on her embroidery project. She keeps everything very organized in a beautiful sewing basket that she carries back and forth to sewing lessons. So she took everything out and laid it on a chair in the family room to show him when he came home from work. Daddy was very proud of her work and how beautiful her pillowcase was turning out. Everyone is happy.

24 hours later...

I am sitting at the computer (writing a blog post), when Rachel comes to me and says she has a problem. She thinks when she took everything out of her sewing basket the day before, she shook the pillowcase to smooth it out for Daddy and now, the needle cannot be found. She was certain a piece of pink embroidery thread was with the needle. That should have made the search a little easier, but she had already looked everywhere. The needle was lost.

I do not get upset too easily, but this immediately sent my mind imagining one of the little cousins coming over and playing in the family room only to end up with a needle stuck in his foot. I immediately began grilling Rachel on what had happened. Where were you standing when you shook out the pillowcase? Did you check the chair? Did you look in the basket? Did you look all through the pillowcase? A small panic settled in and we devised a very methodical plan. After all, no one would be safe until the missing needle was found.

Caleb pulled out one of our large powerful magnets. Between the two of them, they were hopeful someone would find it. He and Rachel started in the big chair (where everything had been laid out for Daddy) and then carefully and slowly worked their way around the immediate area. In the meantime, I could feel my blood pressure starting to rise. We were very clear about the "needle rule" and I was having a hard time understanding why it had not been followed. I stayed in my office, figuring it was best I relax some before joining in the search.

After only a few minutes, I hear a loud, "We found it!" I am immediately impressed because I figured it would take a very long time to find the missing needle. I couldn't wait to see how and where it was found.

Imagine my surprise to walk in the room and find both Caleb and Rachel pointing to the television. There, setting on the television stand, was the needle and a perfectly gathered piece of pink embroidery thread! It was only after finding it that Rachel remembered she had taken the needle and thread out of the pillowcase and "temporarily" placed it on the television stand.

We all ended up having a good laugh together. And a great big fat sigh of relief. The needle and thread had been right there in front of everyone the entire time we were searching. In plain sight.

And that, my friends, is a very happy ending to what could have been a pain in the, um, foot.

The End