This young man attended one of our shows. He really liked the beanie and wanted to try it on. He was such a sharp, polite young man we had to take his picture.

A couple of years ago, Billy Womack took a look at the pile of jerseys his
son had accumulated through years of playing hockey. Colin, now 13, had
played since he was 5, and, as any hockey parent knows, that's a lot of
jerseys.
"My son has been to camps, stick handling this and skating that," Womack
said. "I took a conglomeration of his stuff, cut it up and started putting
it back together."
Before long, Womack had created a blanket of hockey memories.
"Next thing I know, I'm standing in the rink with my son's blanket on me and
people started asking where I got it," he said.
And That's My Blanket was born.
Womack got to work perfecting his craft, making blankets out of his old
softball and Harley-Davidson shirts. He didn't know a lot about
quilt-making, so he decided to take sewing lessons.
"I was building things and they weren't of quality," Womack said. "The
ladies started teaching me what I was doing wrong."
Now, his blankets are high quality and made to last. A plumber by trade,
Womack's buddies tease him about sewing.
"Instead of going out with them, I'd be at a sewing center," he recalled.
They still tease him about it, but, Womack laughs, "But the next thing I
know they ask me to make them one."
And making the blankets keeps him busy.
"I'm a plumber in the daytime, I get up at 5AM to be on the job at 6AM," he
says. After that, he's got baseball practice for one son and hockey for the
other. "Then after that, I sit down at my sewing machine." He sometimes
wakes up in the middle of the night with ideas for new quilts.
His hobby now keeps him at Jo-Ann Fabrics so much he says people ask him if
he works there.
"I say, `No, I just know where everything is,'" he says.
Sewing is a lost art, he said, which makes the blankets mean more to the
owners.
"You can't get this at Wal-Mart, KMart or Meijers," he explains. "I've been
extremely happy with them."
Womack will take 12 or more T-shirts or any number of jerseys and turn them
into lasting memories - and more dresser space.
The blankets come in many sizes and are all custom-designed. Pricing begins
around $200 for a T-shirt blanket and a little higher for hockey jerseys
since with the mesh and nylon there is intricate sewing involved.
"When your son or daughter plays travel, you pay a lot of money every
season," Womack points out. "All you end up with is a jersey."
Taking the team jersey and shirts from tournaments can be turned into
lifetime memories with a blanket.
Womack can make blankets for beds, walls, throws or anything in between.
Some are reversible, like a goalie one he's working on.
"It's got a big goalie mask on one side," Womack explains. "And the other
side is filled with little squares of goalie stuff."
They made great keepsakes for parents and players as well as coaches.
"Instead of another plaque, this would be a great gift for the team to kick
in for the coach," Womack suggested. "It's something to remember the kids
by."
Wherever he goes, he's received accolades for his blankets. The "Blanket
Guy" took his son's team to a Dallas Stars practice in Ft. Lauderdale, where
Colin and his teammates lined up for autographs.
As Colin handed Stars center Mike Modano his blanket to sign, Modano looked
at it and said, "Hey, who made this?" Womack, standing in the back,
acknowledged it'd been him and Modano gave him a smile and a thumbs-up.
"Just the look he gave me was an inspiration," Womack said.
On his website, www.thatsmyblanket.com, it's clear that Womack isn't limited
to just hockey-themed blankets. Some of his first were compilations were of
Harley-Davidson T-shirts. He's also done blankets of old concert T-shirts,
his own softball jerseys, as well as NASCAR and skateboard-themed blankets.
He recently made a Harley-Davidson blanket for a man in Milan, Italy, that
incorporated the man's vest.
"He can actually put the vest on, so when he wears it, the blanket hangs
like a cape," Womack explained.
Womack works closely with clients to find out what they want in their
blanket, such as colors and styles.
"If they give me 15 shirts, I'll try to do one side a checkerboard," he
says. "On the flip side, I find out if they want anything special, like
their favorite jersey."
That way, he says, the blanket has the best of both worlds - designs on both
sides.
Womack starts with cutting the shirts of jerseys, then arranges them in a
design. He can then e-mail the parents pictures of the layout so they can
give their thoughts on the design.
"I ask for input before I start my machine," he said.
Turnaround time for blankets is usually 2-4 weeks. The result is an heirloom
blanket filled with memories for the players and their families.
"Instead of jerseys and shirts being wasted and never used again, let me
keep them in existence so you can hand down to your son or daughter," Womack
says. "Isn't that what blankets are about?"


Philip Colvin
Michigan Hockey
Farmington Hills, MI 48335