Schnibbles

I learned a new word yesterday. Schnibble. I was once given a big, black garbage bag full of schnibbles and I didn't even realize it. A seamstress had saved all of the scraps of fabic left after making her young daughters Christmas, Easter, and assorted special occassion dresses. Of course, I now know that those scraps of fabric were schnibbles, and are little gems to a quilter. Since I had recently happened upon a stash of quilt books at a thrift store, I chose a pattern from Watercolor Quilts and started pressing and cutting. 400 little squares later, I was ready to start sewing. There are alot of different ways to arrange 400 squares and I probably tried most of them out. They say that in quilting, like in fishing, there can be "the one that got away." You know you had the perfect layout of blocks but you've moved them around one too many times, and can't remember how it went.
I got rid of all the schnibbles that I didn't use for that quilt. Cutting 400 squares had made me apathetic about those fabics as future project material. And, besides, you have to carefully manage schnibbles or they multiply and get out of hand. I'm proud to say that I have a very modest and sensible schnibble stash.