Quiet Book Finished!

Now that the trip is over I finally have time to tell you about the rest of the quiet book, as well as its success on the trip!

 

So, I ended up with 12 pages all together, so I've got four new ones to show you.

 

First up was the orchard with fruit to count and a basket for...

 

The garden's crops! Tomatoes, beets, and carrots. Yum!

 

Then I added the frog with his zipper mouth and long tongue that snaps onto the flies surrounding him. :)

 

And, finally, I added the weather page with clouds full of rain and rainbows, covering a sunny mirror.

 

These all came out so well. I was really feeling it by this point!

 

So, here's the final layout of all of the pages.

 

Now that they were finally done, I sewed two pages together, right sides facing, and then turned them inside out, finishing off with a top stitch. Each set of pages also had three ribbon loops attached to the side for gathering together in the cover.

 

 

The cover was one long piece with holes in the middle for binder rings to hold all of the pages together. And it all buckled together at the front with a ribbon.

 

I even added a pocket at the back for any miscellaneous bits.

 

And boy, was it a success! She's had so much fun playing with it! Even uses her tools from her overall page to "dig" in the garden. Too cute!

Granted, it took a ridiculous amount of time to make since a lot of it ended up being hand sewn, but it was totally worth it. We're gonna keep this one for a long time and I've already got more pages planned! ;)



Quiet Book Immersion!

Oh my goodness! I am so unbelievably involved in the world of quiet books at this moment that I don't even know what to do with myself! I started making one in a desperate attempt to keep Nia occupied during a 13-hour road trip at the end of this month. However, now that I've started, I can't stop!

 

Of the 13 pages I have planned so far, I've gotten 8 done! And, for my garden loving girl, they are all garden/farm themed. Here's what I've got so far:

 

 

You can't garden without the right outfit and tools, right?

 

 

 

Gotta tend those flowers!

 

 

The hen's eggs are hatching! Get the chicks under her wing! (This one is a favorite for my baby obsessed girl.)

 

 

 

I loved this idea for a barn with finger puppet animals inside and had to make a field for the animals to play in.

 

I think this pond is one of my favorites so far. Nia loves turtles and counting to 5.

 

 

 

 

And it wasn't complete without a field of flowers for a bee to harvest!

 

I've still got a garden gate/orchard scene, crop field, frog catching flies, weather, and wheel of the year planned, as well as putting it all together with a cover. But I've still got a couple of weeks to go. Wish me luck!

 

 

 

 

Teddy Bear Ears

So, Nia's birthday is in a week and the party theme is a Teddy Bear Picnic. Therefore, I figured I'd make some bear ears for all the kids to wear and take home. This was super easy and only took me an afternoon to make six. Probably could have gone faster with a sewing machine for parts of it, but I love the effect of the hand stitching.

After a bit of searching I found a six-pack of fabric covered headbands for a couple of bucks at RiteAid. I wanted something comfortable enough for a bunch of small children to wear. The oldest child attending is around 4 with the youngest around 15 months. So, a pretty good range.

From there it was just a matter of deciding my ear colors, making a paper pattern for the outside and inside ear pieces, and cutting them all out of felt.

4 outside pieces and 2 inside ear pieces per headband did the job.

Stitch each inside piece to the front of one of the outside pieces and then stitch the front and back outside pieces together. At this point you could add a little bit of stuffing, but I liked the shapeability of the flatter ears so I left that out.

 

 

Then it was just a matter of attaching the ears to the headband. This is where the fabric covered headbands were very helpful, otherwise you could cover the headband with felt or maybe just hot glue them in place.

 

 

And voila! Six different little bears to totter around our party. Don't worry, I'll post pics of the cuteness next weekend!