Over the years, roses have come to symbolise some of our strongest feelings, such as love, passion and admiration. The association with love goes back as far as Greek mythology. Roses are one of the oldest flowers found in our gardens, with rose fossils dating back 35 million years. The oldest living rose is 1,000 years old and lives on the wall of the Cathedral of Hildesheim in Germany. Not only are these flowers beautiful and perfumed, they are also edible. Rose petals are often added to jellies and used as a flavouring in Chinese and Indian cuisine. Rose hips, a berry-shaped fruit grown from roses, are packed with Vitamin C and used for flavouring tea and other beverages. For our block this month, I have depicted a very abstract version of the rose. I’ve always loved creating fabric flowers using simple circle shapes and thought this would work well alongside the geometric patchwork block. I think these graphic roses are so striking and fun and the lack of fiddly detail means it’s an easier make this month.
