can't find saved stickie notes

Thanks for following up with additional information.

When you save a Sticky, it is stored as a plain text file. To open this again as a sticky, have Stickies open and use the menu bar to choose File > Import Text. Navigate to the location you've saved your sticky, and click "Open".

Have a great rest of your day, cheers!

Sorry, but this has nothing to do with the OP's question.

Hi stupidrule,

I understand that you've lost some stickies, and wish to recover them. I know it's important to have control over your files, so I'm happy to provide some direction to help with this.

If you have a backup in Time Machine from when these stickies were still around, you can use it to restore ~/Library/StickiesDatabase. You can see more about how to find that file, as well as how to use Time Machine here:

OS X El Capitan: Library folder

Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac - Apple Support

Have a great rest of your day, cheers!

An apple article is there : Keychain Access: Store confidential information in Secure Notes