Sewing for Love: Mending a Pillow and Cheap, Chopped Chicken Feathers

Weird title? The Sewing for Love part or the Cheap, Chopped Chicken Feathers? So I will explain. Most of us who so do so in part for love, the love of creating, the love of others (watching someone's face light up when they appreciate something you made for them).....stuff like that. Sewing is a hobby for me. I sew OK but not great. I understand the process but I just don't have the talent like others I know. I do it for love.....which leads me to the pillow.
My loving hubby (really, he is a good one...even cooks) has a pillow that he just loves. He shares it with our dog, Annie. I guess one could say it is really Annie's pillow and she graciously shares it with him. Good relationship. Well, this pillow is old. I don't even know where we got it from, who bought it, or anything. It just appeared and it stays on my couch. I have the honor of changing the pillow case every so often, that's it. It's not mine. I'd just as soon send it to the dump, but then I would have to sneak it past 2 instead of one.
I thought I would finally have my way when I noticed a zillion or so feathers in the living room one day. On further investigation I found the pillow had a large tear in it...the fabric is that frail and worn. I told my husband who promptly got a needle and thread and, without further ado, sewed the rather large hole.
I was shamed. Totally shamed. I could have, and should have, sewn it when I found the hole but didn't. He would have done it for me. Total shame so today I mended the pillow properly. I made a new pillow the same size as the old one with two layers of fabric to keep the feathers in. It's plump and pretty now. I showed it to the hubby and his face shone with delight. "I love that pillow" he said.

So what does that have to do with cheap, chopped chicken feathers? When I opened the pillow to use the feathers I noticed they didn't quite look like any goose feathers I am familiar with. It made me think of the Dick Van Dyke Show episode where Laura bought supposedly goose down pillows and he found out they were full of chicken feathers. He sued. In the courtroom he told the judge the pillows were full of "Cheap, chopped, chicken feathers." He won. Seems the judge was allergic to chicken feathers.
Cheap, chopped, chicken feathers kept running through my head while my machine was singing.

Eileen Patterson