Day 5 - Straw Bales and Crop Circles

Several years ago I had the opportunity to go to Buffalo, Kansas where my grandfather and his siblings were born and raised. A large group from my extended family was there that year for the annual "reunion" of the school that used to be there. My great aunts graduated from there and try to regularly attend the reunions, although it's been hard the last couple of years. The 100th and final reunion will be next year and I really want to go and take my family. We saw the house that my grandfather was born in, the barn where he kept his horses, the school he attended (and rode his horse to) , the creek where he swam, the house where he lived when my mom was a baby, etc. When we were there it was the 96th annual reunion....I think! Anyway - one of the family members who attended was my first cousin once removed, Thomas Caudell - He's a professor at a state university and lives in a house made of straw bales. We talked about a lot of things, but one thing was my, then new, apron business. He asked if I could make him a straw bale apron....I said, sure! Then I started looking for straw bale fabric....it's not easy to find!! My mom and I both searched for several years, off and on, for fabric that had any kind of straw. Finally, four years later, my mom found some perfect fabric at a quilt shop website. I had to order it, of course!! For the contrasting fabric, I chose a "crop circle" ish fabric that was a nice complimentary color. ( he lives in a state where aliens were purported to land.....)

I really like the straw bale fabric, I think it's cute and clever without being over the top. I think my cousin will like it too.

Once again, since this was an apron for a man, I kept the design simple - used my own pattern and modified it a little - making it straighter at the bottom and not having it flair out. Since the pockets weren't exactly matching, Anya and I decided that we could mix it up a little and make them unsymmetrical all together. It is reversible - once side has the straw bales as the base, the other, the crop circles.

Here are a couple of pictures of the finished apron - modeled by my Dad! What a good sport he is!

The straw bale side with the asymmetrical pockets

The crop circle side with symmetrical pockets

This apron is not for sale because it's for my first cousin once removed (I can explain what that means if you really want me to....). I hope he likes it and isn't too annoyed with the 4 year delay!

No idea what tomorrow's apron will be.....back to the drawing board! At least it's Saturday and I'll have more time to work on it.