Unfocused Afternoon

I woke up this morning with a plan. Breakfast. Housework. Japanese. Lunch. More Japanese. Quilting. Reading. The first part of the day went really well. I made banana french toast, completed all of my housework, and studied Japanese for an hour. After lunch, I pulled out my supplies and prepared to spend several hours working on my quilt.

Today I was supposed to add a new pink fabric into my double nine patch blocks. It was on the cheaper end of the options at Joann Fabrics. 100% cotton, I think (usually I check but maybe I missed it this time). I washed it and everything looked fine. Ironed it. Cut it and everything looked fine. Then I started sewing it together with the blocks already completed and ran into problems. When I ironed the newly sewn seams, the fabric shrunk. It was the weirdest thing. I needed to replace the fabric I just bought.

So, now that I couldn't work on my quilt, I didn't know what to do with myself! My plan was thrown off. My schedule was off kilter. I could think of plenty of things that needed done but couldn't decide on any one of them. I felt paralyzed for some reason. It was frustrating.

I ended up spending some more time with my Japanese studies, reading a bit, and catching up on some correspondence. When I told my husband what happened this afternoon, he told me that I was productive but it wasn't the productivity I had planned on. Then why did I feel like I was wasting the afternoon? Why did I feel like I was being useless and was throwing away several perfectly good hours? I have no idea why I couldn't just let go of my intended activities and embrace something else. A control issue? I don't know...