Nubbins...

Darcie says that we enjoy the process as well as the project... And I know she's right. So here's part of my process...

Laying by my lovely Featherweight is 96, 4-square units- waiting to be sewn up. That's 384 little 1 5/8" squares. They are going together for the border of my hand-dyed wallhanging. That's so my walls will look cozy. The pile next to those baby squares is my "nubbins." When I was a little girl, I would watch my Grandma cut out biscuits- with a glass. She was a great biscuit maker and a superb gravy maker. (Whenever anyone compliments me on my gravy, I think of her and I sure wish I had some of her gravy. I think gravy deserves it's own food group.) When she was finished with cutting the biscuits out, there would be these tiny bits of dough left over- from in-between the circles. She would gather them all up and gently press them into a "nubbin." A big crusty biscuit. Aunt Karen always called "dibs" on the nubbin. That was fine by us kids- we always liked the soft, fluffy insides, best. But if my Aunt Karen were still with us, I might have to wrestle her for that nubbin. Adults do strange things like that- claiming they like and even prefer the heel on a loaf of bread and that the chicken wing is their favorite piece. "Yeah, right," I remember thinking as a child. "You keep telling yourself that and you might start believing it!" Skeptical little thing, wasn't I? Now, the "nubbins" make me happy. These nubbins on my sewing table are what's left after trimming and squaring. No, I won't be throwing them away. I save them in a nubbin box. When I have enough, I make a nubbin pillow. Now these pillows do not resemble my grandma's fluffy biscuits. These are more like mine. Little chunks of lead. Not the kind of pillows you teasingly swing at a family member's head- not if you want them to remain conscious! They are quite solid nubbin pillows, and have a nice old-fashioned feel to them. The kind you might have found at Grandma's.