Today I continue my quest in creating and posting one block a day of the fabulous That Town And Country Quilt by the lovely Susan Claire. This is day one hundred and seventy-six of that project.

This quilt block has three sunflowers. Each sunflower has a hatched brown center with yellow shaded leaves surrounding it. It's quite detailed and beautiful. The leaves are shaded with an orange pen in a realistic fashion. The stalks are a green fabric with yellow stitched outlines and have a few leaves. This is against a slightly dark blue salmon-patterned background. — Click To Enlarge

I love sunflowers.

They are such happy flowers—a perfect addition to a warm-weather arrangement.

Sunflowers were used as far back as 1000 BC by Native Americans. They were cultivated as a food source. The seeds, high in calcium, were crushed to make flour for bread, ground to make a peanut butter-like paste, and the oil expressed for cooking and used on skin and hair.

They are still used today for these same things. My daughter-in-law has a recipe that uses sunbutter to make pancakes. When you cook them, they turn green.

Sunflowers, of course, got their name because their faces turn toward the sun as it moves across the sky.

The Greeks have a myth explaining why their faces move with the sun. Apollo (the sun god) loved a nymph named Clytie. Apollo showed favor to another nymph, and Clytie was so jealous she had her rival killed.

Apollo was so enraged he turned Clytie into a sunflower. Because of her deep love and loyalty, she turned her face to the sun to watch her love all day.