I am Woot!

One good turn deserves another! Or perhaps more accurately, one growing toddler deserves another shirt. After my success with the Stormtrooper set, I couldn't resist digging into this fun Galaxy print for another Father/Son pairing.

My son loves Rocket Raccoon and my husband loves Guardians of the Galaxy, so it was a natural pairing. To preserve the artwork on the panel, I made T-shirts rather than raglans.

For my son, I made the Zee's Tee by Tie Dye Diva. I will admit, maybe it was just to coordinating purple playing tricks on me, but despite the fact that the TDD Zee says it's specifically tailored to boys, the sleeves seemed a little narrow/short in comparison to the body. On my son, it wasn't so noticeable, but next time I make it I think I might change the angle of the underarm seam to widen the sleeves a bit.

For my Husband I used the Stitch Upon a Time Huntsman, which I've made before. SUAT is a reliable if not particularly earth-shattering pattern company, and the shirt came out pretty much as I had hoped it would.

I still have a little bit of that fabric from the back left over, so hopefully with colorblocking I'll be able to make another matching shirt as my son grows. Because this set is definitely a success! My son in particular was excited to wear his "Raccoon" shirt, and at the end of the photo session both recipients happily showed the seamstress some love!

Stormtrooper Set

Since I've started sewing knits, I've made my son plenty of raglans. I'd wanted to give my husband a similar gift, but he's harder to please than my son is, and pickier about fit. That said, my shelves were starting to get full of fabric FOR father/son sets, and it became obvious that if I wanted to buy MORE fabric for Father/Son sets (which I always do) I was going to have to take the plunge.

Enter this gorgeous stormtrooper print. This particular fabric host will occasionally pass along savings to her customers by screen printing designs, so this cost about 30% less than your typical custom print. Which made it a prime candidate for an "experimental" set of shirts.

For my 3-year old son, I used the Max & Meena Max Raglan (size 4/5). And for my husband, I used the Cole's Creations Jerry Raglan, size 44. I fussycut a little bit on my husband (and a lot on my son) to get the stormtroopers front & center, but I'm glad I did. Both shirts fit great, and my son in particular was excited to have a stormtrooper shirt.

And I even have a little fabric left over for a another shirt as my son grows! Once I was all done, I remembered the R2D2 Raglan I had made for myself, with fabric from the same supplier. Sadly I could not convince my daughter to put on her "Rebel Princess" dress for a full-family shot, but here the rest of us are in our Star-wars Themed Raglans.

Stay tuned, because clearly, my daughter needs an R2D2 Raglan too!

There's no Place like Complete (A Decade of Oz)

It's been a long road, but my Oz set for my MIL is finally done!

I started this set in 2009 - The Good Witch/Bad Witch Panel was actually one of my first quilt-shop purchases, EVER. My husband and I were just dating at the time, but I knew his mom had an Oz obsession, and that pillows would be a fun gift.

Little did I know that over time, Quilting Treasures would release six of these panels. There was a Sepia Beginning, some Good Witch/Bad Witch, the Yellow Brick Road, the Emerald City/Great Oz, Scenes from the Witch's Castle, and finally a No Place like Home panel. By the time the final panel rolled around, my (soon-to-be) husband was fully trained to go into the quilt shop and pick up the panels himself on the way home from work.

Also sometime early on, it occurred to me that since the panels came with a "reel" of scenes from the movie at the bottom, and I was collecting the whole set anyway, I had everything I needed to make a storyboard quilt. So in 2011 (our wedding year), I cut into the fabric and over the next 3 years I put together this beauty. It became my first-ever Quilt-Show Quilt in Central Oklahoma Quilter's Guild Quilt Show in 2013 (Display only, since I did the piecing myself and sent it out to be quilted). I finished the dedication on the back (not pictured) and gifted it to my MIL in 2014. To date, it remains my most ambitious project.

But... back to present day! After gifting the quilt (and birthing my daughter) I have to admit that the pillow-making slowed to a trickle. In fact, I think the final set of pillows was up on my design board for close to three years before my MIL finally asked me if I was still planning on completing it. But complete it I did!

The final "No Place Like Home" pillow wasn't gifted until May 2019, making this Oz set reflect a full decade's worth of learning and progress. Early pillows were quilted with the walking foot, but although I haven't free-motion quilted in a while, I found it was like riding a bicycle when I brought the final pillow out.

And My MIL is thrilled! At her new place in Oklahoma she has an entire guest bedroom dedicated to Wizard of Oz memorabilia, and on display front and center is her quilt and pillow set. Her "Pride and Joy", she calls it, and shows it off to anyone who comes to visit.

All in all, I'm pretty proud of it - it's a big accomplishment, and I know this whole set is in a place where it is cherished and loved. And what more could a quilter/sewist want for her creations?