"My" Quiet Book

First of all - I apologize in advance for the poor lighting in some of these pictures - I only get crafting time at night and the light is difficult for good picture taking.

Ok - now to something I've been wanting to blog about for a long time and I think I have the energy tonight to start it. Before son #1 was born I really wanted to make a quiet book. I have very fond memories of sitting in church when I was a child with a quiet book that my grandmother handmade for us. We loved that book! I found a quiet book class at one of my local craft/fabric shops and of course signed right up for it. I was glad that I did! Their way of putting the pages together was fabulous and I have been able to jump off from their ideas and add lots of new pages and details to "my" book. It's still a work in progress - I have lots of ideas for additional pages . . . some are even sketched out or started. One day soon, I might have some more time . . .

Anyway - another important note - many of these ideas are not my own. Some are straight from the ladies that taught the class, some are from other idea books I've come across, some are from blogs I've seen on the web, a few are copies of pages that my grandmother made for us, and some are actually my own ideas.

So with all that in mind - I present "my" Quiet Book. My sons love this book just like I hoped that they would. I plan on posting it all over the next few days (probably 3 posts total) to get it all in. Stay tuned for more.

This is the front of the book. I didn't want to put the pages in a hard binder so I created my own soft, quilted "binder". I found some sky fabric at Joann's along with a piece of airplane fabric. I used the sky to make the book and then fussy cut some airplanes, rockets and helicopters out and then quilted them on the book. I used ribbon to tie it closed and now wish that I hadn't. In fact, after using it again today at church, I think I'm going to open those seams up and take the ribbon out. I'm thinking about adding in a flap with velcro closures. Here is the front of the book.

Here is the inside front cover.

The inside back cover.

And the back.
I really didn't have a pattern to follow when I made the cover. But I knew that I wanted to be able to put pages in and take pages out. So I used large binder rings from the office supply store along with some thick/heavy ribbon. I sewed that ribbon down a few times along the spine, jumping my needle over the rings when I came to them. I really do like being able to trade out pages from time to time as their skills grow and as they get bored with certain pages. Here's just a taste of the finished pages - again I'll post the rest over the next two posts.

In the class they recommended that we use heavy weight stabilizer (like Pellon 65) for our pages. It is stiff and you can color and sew on it very easily. I used colored pencils to add the color. Sharpie pens (in various thicknesses) are used to add the black writing and lines - super easy! Each page is made on its own and then two pages are sewn wrong sides together. I run my pinking rotary cutter around the edges to square it all up and then use my grommet tool to put the three grommets in. I love this touch because it is nearly impossible to ruin a page at the holes which is usually a weak spot. Another important note - I found it useful to try to put the same level of skill pages back to back so that as I add them in and out of my book, easier or harder pages made sense.

Stoplight - the red, yellow, and green circles are velcroed on.
Seashell Lacing - this is one of son #2's current favorite pages. He loves putting the shoelace through the holes in the shells and is quite proud of himself each time he finishes a shell. The shells are colored with pencils and laminated for durability. The top of the bucket is open so that everything for this page can be stored right inside.Apple Tree - the apples snap on to the page and can be put in the basket at the bottom. I made the basket out of the Pellon since I saw that the felt would stretch and even droop ever so slightly. The grass is cut out of felt and sewn to the page - kind of a three dimensional effect. Boat - kind of like a puzzle or picture that they can velcro off and on to the page. Another hint is to use invisible thread in both your needle and bobbin for sewing the velcro on so that you don't have to keep changing out the thread color for each piece. More to follow . . .