I always wanted to have a quiet book when my kids were little. I made one...on pellon and drew on the pellon with magic markers.... that weren't permanent.... and the kids put the pieces in their mouths... :(
It wasn't a good experience.
But oddly enough, the kids still had fun with the book.
Fast Forward about 20 years, and I've learned a lot. I also have more patience...and time. And less kids to take care of. So I decided that I'd try it again.
I made my cute new little Grandkids and myself (they need one when they come to Grandma's house...) quiet books. This time I sewed them and I used a pattern. They turned out cute. I tweaked the patterns and customized the books. They got all fancy because now we had t-shirt iron-ons to use. :) Yeah baby. I put Grandma and Grandpa's pictures under flaps and a title that says "who loves me". I sewed them with the cutest material, and they turned out great.
Who Loves Me? page with flaps
Who Loves Me? page with flaps opened.
I used t-shirt transfers for the pictures and ironed them onto muslin.
clockwise: Grandpa, Great Grandparents, Grandma, Great Grandparents. (this is my book.
The kids' personal books have mom and dad in the great grandparents slot, with Brad and myself under one flap, and the other grandparents under the other flap.)
sheep (texture) and jingle bells in bow.
dog in a dog house. they like to eat the dog.
"Family Tree" - under each flap is a picture of each person in our family up to that date.
(This was the page that was overwhelming me... We're going to have so many people that this page was going to cause some real problems! But of course, it's one of the more favorite pages!)
"Brook and Aiden" (the two grandkids that got the quiet books)
in sleeping bags with Velcro and zippers. You can play with the dolls.
Butterfly with crunchy wings. (use cellophane wrap for the crunch between two pieces of fabric!)
Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, tall.
This page was NOT fun. Cute, but not fun.
Color matching balloons.
(used my sizzix die-cut machine for the balloons!)
"I spy" Quilt page
"Bee" Humble, grateful, Prayerful, clean, smart and true page.
Bees with Velcro.
FYI - Velcro doesn't do well if you just glue it on. :(
I had to go back and sew it on felt, then sew the felt pieces together. That was a pain!
Farm page with t-shirt transfer animals in barn, and finger-puppet pig, cow and chick.
Gotta have that "peek-a-boo" page.
By the time I got done I had decided that they were way to much work for what they looked like. The only problem was that by the time I finished them.... I had another grandchild...in a different family...And mom knew that I sewed these quiet books, because "mom" was my daughter that I had bragged too. Dang! Her only response to my bragging? "When do we get ours?" Shoot!
So my quick response was, "Don't worry, I'll have it by Pee-baby's 1st Birthday." (Her nickname for her son, not mine. But in all respects, it'll protect his identity.)
Fast forward again to one month ago. I am back to making quiet books. Pinterest has a lot of ideas and some really neat ways to do things! There's even a page on there that has circuits so that you can light up your robot! Amazing! The dang thread has wire in it! This mom is a genius! And apparently has WAY MORE time and patience than I do! But her pages are AWESOME!
Well, I didn't want to get THAT creative, so I kept mine on the down-low, reduced the size just a bit, and I used felt this time. Felt doesn't fray. Yay felt! My oldest daughter called up while I was busily working on the book and asked, "What are you doing?"
As I dropped my head in shame, I admitted I was working on a quiet book. She was so excited! Pee-Baby was FINALLY going to get his quiet book! (Pee baby is now 2 1/2 years old). Then I had to admit that I wasn't actually making this particular quiet book for him. I was making it for a shower for his soon-to-be-born cousin, and that he was going to have to wait, yet again, to get his quiet book.
Let's just say that daughter #1 wasn't that happy. :/
Well, the pages turned out really cute, were pretty easy thanks to the felt and the reduced size, and I got the book done in my spare time in about a week. I was quite pleased with myself. And daughter #2 loved the quiet book and has it safe at home, waiting for our new little grandson to grow up a bit.
Quiet Book Cover. Letters cut out by a cricut machine. I thought that was pretty creative.
Page one is felt squares with button shapes.
Fun for when he's 2-3, and nice to look at and touch as a baby.
Pinterest idea. I thought this was quite clever.
buttonholes with ribbon. Tie a knot in the end. Ta da!
Families are Forever flap.
Pocket made of vinyl behind the temple for a family picture.
Instead of the temple (if you're not LDS) you could put a place that your family likes to go
or "who loves me" etc.
This is a mirror on paper! Perfect for little kids. This one still has
the protective sheet on it. (I got all the "extras" at JoAnns).
Lion with Ribbon Tags for mane
Bug Jar. You can take the bugs out.
Under the Sea Counting page. Not finished at this point!
Textile page. Babies love to touch stuff!
Whoops! I guess I didn't get a picture of the next page that is half showing!
It's like a water globe made of vinyl. Inside is glitter, beads, and anything small and shiny.
I just sewed around the edge of the clear vinyl (with a "roller foot" on my machine), left a small opening and inserted the glitter,etc. then finished sewing it up. The stuff moves around and is shiny.
Rainbow colored beads + black and white.
I wanted something different besides hands for Peek-a-boo. Elephants are fun and they work!
Meanwhile, Daughter #1 called up again, and asked, "When do we get our quiet book?"
How do you put off cute little pee-baby any more? So I got to thinking....
- I am just getting started in this grandbaby business.
- I am a seamstress after all...
- I have 7 children... I'm going to have A LOT of grandkids.
- I'm going to have to make all these grandkids a quiet book. (Be careful what you start!!!)
- that's a lot of sewing...
- how can I make my life easier?
- Squirrel!
- Wait! I have an embroidery machine, and I now have the ability to digitize and make appliques.
- hmmmmm.
- I am now digitizing quiet book pages for Pee Baby's Christmas present.
I must admit that these pages are FUN! They are turning out very professional looking, and there are so many possibilities! My brain just keeps thinking up so many ideas to do that I've started writing them down in a book so I don't lose the ideas!
I'M SO EXCITED!!!
My first page is done. It's a "Monster Truck". Grandpa got Pee Baby hooked on Monster Trucks at his last visit in October when he took him for a ride in the Razr and watched you-tube videos of Razr crashes. Pee Baby LOVES it! So of course the first page HAD to be a Monster Truck.
There's also a Mr. Potato Head Dress up doll, a Drive the Cars page, a Save Your Money Piggy Bank, and other ideas are coming!
(Potato head pieces are going to Velcro on Potato head...embroidery is without the black outlines at this point.)
I'm SEW EXCITED!
Pee Baby is FINALLY going to get his quiet book, Grandma has embroidery files for future grandkids that all I have to do is define colors and sew out age appropriate pages, and Quiet books aren't the drudgery that they used to be! The pages can also be taken out and updated on holidays and birthdays to age appropriate activities! YAY!
(I must admit though, that I bought a "music" button [at Hobby Lobby in the Doll section] that plays Twinkle, Twinkle. I'm waiting for him to go to church with that one! :) )
I guess Quiet Book Stress can be a good thing. It forced me to get creative!
Thanks cute little Pee-Baby! I Love you! Even if you murder BUGS!
- this video inspired the Bug Jar!
If you have an embroidery machine and would like FREE copies of my patterns, please comment below, or send me an email at shaggymountainquilts@gmail.com
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