One Thing Always Leads to Another

That should be my theme these days. Seems like everything I start ends up taking an abrupt turn into something different. Sound familiar?

I've been practicing on the Hinterberg quilting frame, stitching along on a big piece of muslin. And this morning I thought that I'd finish it off, since I was approaching the end, so I can load something different. Well, I did what I've always heard NOT to do, and managed to start stitching with the presser foot UP. Yikes...what a big thread tangle THAT made. See those threads?



Just the tip of the threadish iceberg. And that led to mini-surgery on the machine (I now know how to unscrew and remove the feeddogs) to get it all out. Those few more minutes of sewing turned into a 45 minute machine repair session. Sigh.

And then there was Friday's episode in the garden. We have these two flowerbeds which have sorely needed planting. Sounds like fun, huh? Unfortunately, our soil is heavy clay. Seems like no matter how much mulch and planting mix I add in, it's still clumpy and heavy and dense and really nasty for digging. So, there I was, digging away with my small-ish ladies' shovel (no trowel will work in this tough stuff) and I pierced the main sprinkler line. Aarrgh. So that led to a trip to the hardware store and a line repair session.

Yesterday, Caroline was at loose ends (ah, summertime) so I suggested that she sew something. I was thinking of these squares of Pokemon fabric we found one day (she's BIG into Pokemon) and I figured it'd entertain her to arrange them and sew them together. A nice, easy project. But now, Caroline had other plans. She wanted to create a Pokemon scene, which led to her drawing her favorite characters to transfer to fabric...



...which led to coloring with fabric markers...



which will eventually lead to a big fusing session. Clearly, she gets the "Can I possibly make this more complicated?" thing from me.

Of course, sometimes this works in surprising good ways. This morning, we took Caroline off to a playdate at her friend Lani's house. And this is leading to a spontaneous dinner date with Lani and her mom Noriko at a local mexican place tonight. That'll be fun.

So, this afternoon I'm taking the opportunity to sew borders on the fruit quilts .... you know, the fruit quilt for Beth that came out of trying to use up the Kyle's Marketplace fruit fabrics... and the second "fruit basket quilt that came out of using up the scraps from Beth's quilt...

Well, that led to my ordering this stunning fabric:



(I mean, how could I resist?) for inner borders. And, as I was sorting through a fabric bin looking for binding fabric, look what I found:



Oh, lord. More fruit fabric. Where will that lead?

Does this happen to you, or is it just me?

If you have a "one thing leads to another" story, post it in a comment. Please! I'd love to know that I'm not the only one doing this to myself!