Who Needs Plans?

Good morning Mad Tatter.  Good morning Doris.  Good morning Art.  My fan club.

When my partner in crime and I set out on this mission, we only planned to stop at three needlework stores.  Before we hit the pillows last night we had visited more than we had planned (we’re including the one that was closed, we believe we should get credit for trying!)

Some of you had questions about my said partner in crime.  The 94 shops she has visited have all been in the U.S,  She’s been keeping track for the past five years.  15 of the shops on her list have closed since she visited them.  She has many more shops she would like to visit yet, mainly in the northeast and out west.

Back to our mission.  Our first “planned” stop was Black Cat, but we ventured off the road in Delafield, WI to visit the Hidden Staircase which carries pottery, quilting and needlework supplies.  Unfortunately for us, they are only open on Saturdays.  Stop number two was Black mCat Stitchery in Winthrop Harbor, IL - see previous post.

As long as we “were in the neighborhood”. We figured we may as well pop in to Welcome Stitchery in Crystal Lake, IL.  Never know what treasures you will find here; they have been in business for 30 years!  We were hoping that luck would be on our side and that Gary Parr of Fiber Talk might be there shopping, but he was not.  Made a few purchases.  We found some wonderful persimmon banding which we will use for the next iStitch Black Band Sampler.  Have to support the local needlework economy! (Forgot to take a shop picture.)

Our second “planned” stop was Tomorrow’s Heirlooms in Glen Ellyn, IL.  They just moved to a new larger, location.  Beautiful shop.  Another fun one where you can find older treasures.  I found some hard to find projects here which I will share in a later post.

We had to keep moving.  Found ourselves on Lemont Avenue and immediately said to ourselves We must be close to the Inspired Needle! “. Took a quick right turn and in 10 minutes we were there.  Poor Cathy was dealing with a ceiling leak in her shop.  Had a nice chat with Cathy about the upcoming Needlework Galleria in September.

Keep in mind, it’s been raining cats and dogs this entire drive.  Not fun in the Chicago area where there’s always lots of semi trucks and road construction on the interstates.  But I digress.

We left the Inspired Needle and decided it was time to get serious (tall order for the two of us).  We had to head south.  We buckled in, ate our leftover pizza from the night before (very good pizza, by the way) and forged ahead.  Neither rain, nor big trucks, nor road construction would keep us from our destination.  Let the GPS direct us and oftentimes we wondered where the heck we were, but we continued to stay the course.

We were about 15 miles short of our next stop and the pounding rain got the best of us.  We pulled off the interstate and drowned our sorrows in a Jamocha shake at Arby’s.

Would this fearless twosome make it to their final destination?  Or would their adventure end at a truck stop in Indiana with only an Arby’s Jamocha shake for consolation?  You’ll need to tune back in again later to find out.