Apparently the theme color for a 60th birthday is red and according to winni.in there are a number of red flowers appropriate to celebrate ones 60th. Gloriosa, more commonly known as Flame or Fire lily, is one such flower and because it relates to "glory" and "brave", has a sense of honor for anyone who reaches their 60th birthday. Hence my 60th flower block is the Gloriosa Lily.
Since I had never heard of this lily, I needed to do some research and doing that online was the best way for me to achieve this. I visited Mr Wiki and found this photo on the wikimedia commons (meaning I can share this photo as long as I link to the copyright information)
After reading and understanding the concepts of this unique plant as well as studying the photos, I started to sketch my own design.
I pulled my sketch into Inkscape and started drawing my outlines for the pattern and templates. I have to admit, this can take a lot of time and I find myself needing to take breaks to not only relax my eyes but get some movement back into my legs!
After working on this over a series of days, I was finally ready to print out my draft and start pulling fabrics to begin making this new block.
Pressing, drawing, cutting and stitching, with some tweaking along the way produced the following Flame Lily.
Gloriosa superba better known as Flame Lily
I enjoyed making this block and I'm very pleased with the result. It's quite an honor to produce my 60th flower block for my 60th birthday.
If you'd like to join in the fun and make this flower block too, you can find the pattern here: Flame Lily
PS: look for the deal we have for buying multiple flower blocks. You'll find all the flowers here: 60 BOW flower blocks
