Threads of Thought

Certain threads of my thoughts seem to be cropping up in unexpected places and are causing me some embarrassment. Yesterday I posted about signs and faces, and after posting I navigated over to Carol's site where I found she had posted on Monday about seeing a face in a stepping stone. Yikes! I felt my face redden as I thought that anyone reading my post after having read hers would think I am an idea thief! Then I went to Sarah Laurence's blog and saw her post which included unusual signs. No way! What is going on here? I took the photos Sunday on our hike and pieced an idea together in my head, but, unfortunately, I didn't fully assemble the idea and post it until Thursday. Procrastination has gotten me into trouble before, but it usually just involved burning the midnight oil to finish a term paper, a problem for my eyes only (and maybe the teacher's), as their redness gave evidence of my "sin" the next morning in class.


Now, my procrastination has leaped into cyberspace and exposed me as a possible idea thief! Wait a minute, now. My sister Ellen and I were discussing something along these lines on Tuesday when I had a visit with her and my mom for an early Mother's Day lunch. After eating lunch at Hunan's in Carbondale, we went to Ellen's house for dessert and tea, and she let me have a peek at the gift she is assembling for me. Isn't it gorgeous? She says it is a stack-n-whack quilt.


Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? Apparently, all of the blocks in the quilt are pieced together in kaleidoscope fashion from one piece of fabric. I asked her if the idea was hers, but she said she found it in a pattern book.


Aren't patterns kind of like recipes, I wondered out loud? The woman who published the pattern book "cooked" up what looks like a novel idea, but she probably just drew on years of experience with various styles of quilting to put a new twist on what had come before, adding a bit of her own creative flair to the mix. We would all like to think we have a truly original idea sometimes, but then something comes along to show us that, no, our thoughts are merely tied to some bigger, more elaborate, and deliberate pattern.