Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Flowers and Triangles

Today after work I stopped by Mom and Dad's for a visit.  I like to check on them pretty regularly and be sure they are doing okay.   We were sitting on the front porch after a light rain had cooled down the unseasonably hot  temperature.  For most of my life there have been these two flower bushes in the yard.  They grow side by side and even are intertwined a bit.  They are now about ten feet tall. Dad calls the flowers "hollyhocks" but they aren't. I don't know what they are though, so if you know tell me. One bush has white flowers and the other has purple/lavender ones.































Last night I was watching a movie, but I don't like to veg and watch a movie. So I cut some Half Square triangles with my Go! cutter. These make  a 2.5 inch square. That finishes to 2 inches.  I cut a bunch of them from little scraps. (Oh this is the die that comes with the cutter. It cuts these, plus 2.5 inch squares and a 4.5 inch square.)  So after I made a pile of them -and also sewed some strips together for the rail fence blocks, the movie was over.  I took my pile to the ironing board and pressed them.  Then I could NOT resist playing with layouts.
I got this block which I think is SWEET!

















Mind you , it is not sewn together.  I just put the pieces in this orientation and took a picture. The seams SHOULD be straighter and the points SHOULD line up once I sew it.
And to think, I had not considered the Half Square triangle cutter(s) until Pat mentioned that she was salvaging her scraps with it. Yaay!  Thanks Pat!

14 comments:

Greg said...

I haven't got a clue as to what type of flowers those are. They look nice though. Nice block!! Can't wait to see more progress!

Rhonda said...

What a great block.....love the colors you've chosen......I have no clue about the flower blossoms!!!

Sue said...

Hey Gene, your folks flowers are Hibiscus. I'm not sure what species they are but my folks had them either side of their porch when I was growing up too. All the way over in Aussieland.

Pat said...

We had those flowers in our house in NJ...and they aren't the kind of hibiscus that is tropical, although they are in the hibiscus family. They are actually a hollyhock TREE as opposed to the hollyhock individual flowers that grown anew each year. If you Google hollyhock tree, you should find photos that look nearly like the ones you showed here. And...HEY...I love that block you designed by playing around with the HST's. Great job!!!

Tangos Treasures said...

Sweet block!
I'm with Pat on the flowers!

Anonymous said...

Your block looks very nice laid out this way! I'm sure it happened very quickly with your new toy. Have fun!

Petit Design Co. said...

They look like hibiscus to me. ooh I like that block

luv2quilt2 said...

I love the flowers - ours are just getting ready to bloom. They're hibiscus, or 'hibiscuits' as my kids called them.

Patty said...

I think those flowers are Hibiscus. You block look pretty cool. That Go is something else.

sewfunquilts said...

Oh my gosh, Gene, you mean to tell me I can finally use some of those "icky scraps" overflowing in my scrap box under my cutting table?? I love what your did with the HST..good job on fabrics too!

The flowers look like hollyhocks to me too, a "friend" of the hibiscus. As kids, we used to pick those flowers and stick our 2 fingers thru the middle and play like the big bloom was a full dancing dress...and we would "dance" with our fingers..for hours on end. Thanks for bring that memory back to me.

Melissa ;-) said...

Love that block, Gene. What a burst of energy!

Unknown said...

they are hibiscus.....they are really beautiful....

Anonymous said...

Hey Gene!!! Was thinking about ya today, and thought I'd stop by and see what you're up to and say hi! Love your flowers! Summertime is so fun, minus the terrible heat, but, hey! We're here and we having quilting, right?!
Hugs to you!

Marcia W. said...

Gene, these are hibiscus. I live in North Florida and we have lots of these in the yard. My job was to prune the dead stems as the hard freezes this year killed ours back. Normally they are not cut back much otherwise run the risk of cutting off the blooms-to-bee. They come in many colors with single and double blooms.
I really like the block combination you showed.