Friday 4 November 2011

Two birds with one stone . . .

The idiom "Kill two birds with one stone" means to accomplish two tasks with only one effort.

 In the Greek Mythology tale of Daedalus and Icarus, Daedalus is held captive by King Minos on Crete in a high tower. All he is able to see are high walls around him and large birds overhead awaiting his and his son, Icarus' demise. Daedalus devises a plan to throw stones at the birds in the hope of fashioning artificial wings to enable the pair to fly home. He finds, with his stone through a clever throwing motion, that he is able to strike one bird with the ricochet hitting a second bird, thus killing two birds with one stone. The rest is history.

This post isn't at all about birds, or stones, but it does fit nicely with my dreaded scrap heap. (see  Scrap-a-holic  post).  I'm making some progress with the scraps.  They are mostly (not all, but mostly) sorted according to colour - browns, blacks, yellows, beige/tan, golds, blue, green, brights, pastels, multi-prints .. . . it goes on and on!  But, the good thing is that I now have a purpose for the scraps.  Bonnie Hunter, of Quiltville.com is hosting a Mystery Quilt project.   When quilters sign up for a mystery quilt, they are sent the instructions a piece at a time. They have no idea what the end project will look like - all you know is pretty much how much fabric you will need.  Each week, a new set of instructions will be posted, but final design is hidden until almost the very end.  This particular Mystery Quilt is called Orca Bay - and, it's going to use up a lot of my scraps.

According to the initial instructions, I will need to choose scraps in four color groups.  I have chosen  Greens, Reds, Neutrals, Browns . . .

So, the sorting begins . . .


Greens


Reds

Neutrals


 
Browns . . .


Lets's see where this goes - anyone out there want to join in??  Just go to Quiltville.com for more information.

I have no idea where this will lead, but I do know I'll have a fantastic quilt top out of basically nothing AND I will be depleting the Scrap Heap!

I really like the Greek Mythology tale - but further research revealed that to escape, Daedalus used his inventive skills to create wings held together with wax for he and his son. The two were able to get airborne and fly out of their maze prison. Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too high or to low by the sea. Icarus soared so near the sun that the wings melted. The boy plunged to his death into the sea south of Samos. The sea was then called the Icarian Sea.  -

I certainly hope that I have more success with the Mystery Quilt and my Scrap Heap!


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1 comment:

Crazy Creek Creations said...

Good luck with your mystery quilt Bev - I love Bonnie Hunt and have used a number of her patterns over the years. I'd love to join you as I'm a sucker for scrap quilts. Unfortunately have a few too many things on my plate at the present. Hopefully we can work on something together in the future.

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