Needle in a Haystack

You've seen the commercial of the woman who can't find her keys because she absentmindedly puts them into the refrigerator. Her husband says something comforting like, "That's alright baby."  You know it isn't alright, she is slipping into dementia.  Well  there is a family history of just that, so when something happens, I lose something or can't find something I go to extremes.

I found this great fabric a while back at the thrift.(I have no problem finding things at the thrift ;-)  As soon as I saw it I wanted to make an apron. I found the pattern I had purchased  a decade ago, which in itself was amazing.    

 I haven't cut a pattern in a very long time, but it was like riding a bike, it all was going so well.

There is something calming about sewing.  Takes me back to my youth, my Mom sewed, and I learned in high school.  Thank you Miss Coletta.  I actually, as an adult, got to thank her when I ran into her at a store.
It's a skill learned that I use and enjoy often.  I digress...

 This is the wrap around Daisy Kingdom apron pattern.

It called for yard and yards of bias trim, but because the fabric I had was a tablecloth, I had to use what I had and went with strips cut on the straight of the grain.  First mistake.

 I sewed the binding on by machine.  The pattern is strange.  The binding went on in one piece, the neck, armholes and edge are one continuous piece.

Then I pinned the binding, preparing for the hand sewing to finish my apron.  This is were the needle comes in.  I placed a needle in my pincushion, after a few chores, it was gone.  I don't know if I knocked it off, accidentally grabbed it with the pins, swept it up with the trimming and the thread on the floor.  Anyway, this was my Dad's pet peeve.  If a needle went missing, and they did even when I was young, Dad would go crazy.  Some Polish thing, a urban legend about someone stepping on a needle that then travels the bloodstream and goes straight to the heart and kills you!  I'm calling this the curse of Dad, because I spent the next few hours looking for the dang needle.

When I didn't find it that day, I continued the next.  Cleared the table, under the table, vacuumed the floors, dumped the contents of the vacuum onto paper so I could sift through it and run a magnet through it.  In the process I moved the kitchen table, so I thought I'll wash the curtains...then I washed the windows inside and out.  Then I did the same at the patio doors.  All the while looking for the needle.

 I hung clean curtains in the family room, hung the now clean curtains from the family room to the living room.

 Vacuuming as I went, dumping the contents...No needle.

Hung some different hand towels by the sink in the kitchen.  No needle.  I wish I had a happy ending to this story, except for the fact that I got some spring cleaning out of the way, I haven't found the needle, yet...
The apron is finished and that too is not a happy ending.  It's very big and the binding, though done well, just doesn't lay right.  I'll post a photo of it as soon as I find my camera...just kidding.

Thanks for dropping by and for your patience with this old girl. Enjoy this beautiful day!