Hall's version date's back to the early 20th century, before 1935. TWO IN ONE emerged from a newspaper advertisement, under the pen name of Alice Brooks, otherwise known as the Old Chelsea Station Needlework Service (a New York City mail order company begun in 1933). Jinny Beyer illustrated the block in 2000 as SERENDIPITY, that is, the "two in one" referring to a coincidence of events, usually considered a good omen. For example, someone finds an old birthday card tucked into a book on a day, by chance, that actually happens to be that person's birthday, as if the card had been forwarded mysteriously somehow from the past.

There are other terms for serendipity, or TWO IN ONE — in Hinduism and Buddhism, the expresssion, advaita, means literally, "not two," (the "a" at the beginning translates as "not," and the "dvai" refers to "two," similar to the English word "twain.") Advaita is a philosophy of great beauty and depth, as it expresses the unity of all things, while at the same time maintaining the individuality and uniqueness of each and every existence or event in all creation. It is said that in Taoism, "difference is the inescapable nature of being." The Christian Trinity respresents a similar idea of synchronicity, or multiplicity in unity. The peacock design, left, is a free (non-commercial) download from patterncooler.com (opens in new window).

Other designs at this site named with numbers include:

ORIGINAL FOUR PATCH
54-40 OR FIGHT
FOUR WINDMILLS
SEVEN STARS / SEVEN SISTERS
FOUR-POINTED STAR
FOUR WINDS
TWENTY TEES
FLOWERING NINE PATCH
(with Georgia O'Keeffe)