Cotton Rose Block

My quilt guild, The Cotton Rose Quilters, decided to have a contest among the members to design a "cotton rose" block.  It could really be anything we wanted it to be, but the idea was to somehow make it representative of the guild.  I chose to combine a carpenters wheel block with a friendship star block, using the colors of an actual cotton rose bloom. 

I've always felt like the outer part of the carpenters wheel block mimics a flower.  I thought changing the inner star from the original to a friendship star would represent the friendships that we develop through the guild, and mimic the yellow center of the cotton rose bloom. 

I'm pleased with how it turned out, but there are soooo many half square triangles that making just one block is time consuming.  If I made it again, I might change my method and make some units as flying geese instead of HSTs.

Here are some pictures of actual cotton rose blooms.  They can be single (top) or double (bottom) blooms, and they change from white to pink as the blooms age.

The pattern for the block is available here for free.  Enjoy!