Pam Turner of Blaine is a local inventor and entrepreneur who has redesigned the traditional sewing needle. Her invention won five awards at the Minnesota Inventor’s Congress Invention and Idea Show in 2008. She will sell her needles at the 2008 Anoka County Fair and at the Creative Activities Annex at the 2008 Minnesota State Fair.

Q: What is your connection to Eden Prairie?
I owned a coffee shop, Grounds for de Norse, that was in the strip mall on Commonwealth. I still think of my customers there and the feeling of being part of the EP community. Several of my good friends live there.

Q: Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you now?
My coffee shop went under because of the construction of Highway 5. I spent the past nine years selling cars, selling copiers, getting a master’s degree in writing, doing freelance writing and selling beds. For the past four years I have been working on creating a new type of hand sewing needle that is open on the side.

Q: What prompted you to invent the Spiral Eye Needle?
It took me longer to thread a needle than sew on a button one day and I remember laughing at my mom 40 years ago when she had the same problem. It wasn’t funny when it was me struggling with it. It also made me angry that in those years man went to the moon, phones became pocket accessories and computers are in most homes. Why hadn’t we fixed the sewing needle?

Q: What makes this needle different from others?
1: The Spiral Eye Needle is the only hand sewing needle made in the USA.
2: The eye has an opening on the side so it is easy to thread and it stays threaded.
3: It is 100 percent surgical stainless steel. All other needles are made of steel and then plated with nickel ... the common usage of nickel in jewelry has caused so many women to have allergic reaction to it, that many countries now ban its use in jewelry. Why use it in needles?

Q: Why is it so important to you to use local manufacturers?
I believe part of America’s economic problem is related to having outsourced so many jobs to other countries. I grew up in Michigan and remember how the import of cheaper cars destroyed the state's economy in the 1970/80s. To me, it seems that the cost of buying cheaper products from China and India is the loss of jobs for Americans. It may cost more to make a product here, but it means my neighbor has a job, and that is important.

Q: Do you sew during your free time? What kinds of sewing do you do?
I mend mostly. I can’t afford to throw away a shirt when it loses a button or replace a pair of jeans with a ripped seam. I do also quilt some and embroider when I get time.
– Compiled by Erin Schmidtke