Gaijin sorry to hear about your dad and I hope he gets better. To hurt in all those areas he must be in pain. Hugs to you and your family.
Fabric Lover, stilettos are used a lot in sewing especially when guiding fabric when machine sewing. It has a lot of purposes. I make them myself and love the way they come out when using different kinds of beads. I'm sure there are many here who use theirs for different purposes. I too though they meant high heels and thought "what does that have to do with sewing/quilting?" and then of course our wonderful friends here on the board explained it to me. I love collecting them and have some from the generous SP swap friends here.