Darren's grandma was Polish, and she made a hope chest for each of her grandsons and filled them with flour sack dish towels decorated with folk flowers. I still have them and I treasure them... they're so beautiful.
Flowers like these, with matching leaves on both sides and dots and swirls filling the gaps, have been used on towels, painted boxes and paper cuts for hundreds of years. Polish paper cutters got the symmetry for free, because a folded sheet of paper comes out the same on both sides.
Sunflowers and wheat both ripen as summer ends, so putting them together says harvest without a word. A vine that curls into a heart is a classic folk art move too, and here a small pumpkin sits at the point.
Red poppies are worn for Remembrance Day because they bloomed across the battlefields of the First World War, and the dove stands for the peace that people hoped would follow.
