Kristy's Four Quiet Books

Hi everyone! I'm sorry for the month-long break on the blog and my slow responses to your emails. I kind of unintentionally took August off as a mental/"end of summer" break. I don't have many excuses other than being pregnant and watching my toddler, and I know you're all that busy too! But I'm back now, and have a whole bunch of really delightful quiet books lined up to share with you. :)

Today's quiet books were made by Kristy, a mother who made not one, but four quiet books! She made two for her friends' daughters, and two for her son. The first two below are the ones she made for the girls, and the second two are the books she made for her son.

I love so many of the ideas that Kristy used - I definitely want to make a weather page in a future quiet book, and her tree with the peekaboo pockets is just adorable! I know my daughter would really enjoy her safari page.  And her "Ring Quiet Book" (the fourth one) is totally unique; I think it would be really cool to make a book like that in the future. All of these books look super fun and entertaining. Check them out!

First quiet book:

Second quiet book:

Liam's quiet book:

"Ring" quiet book:

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence.
My name is Kristy.  I am a wife, a mother to a wonderfully happy son, and I teach psychology at The Ohio State University when I’m not with my family.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?
I made two of the quiet books for my son Liam - the “Liam book” (of course!) and the small ring book.  He is almost one now, but he was only a few months old when I first started on it.  I made some of the pages with his current age in mind (for instance, the lion page and button page) and I made other pages more advanced for him to use later.  The other two books I made for my friends’ daughters.  One little girl is 18 months and the other is 2.5 years old.

What's your level of sewing experience?
I would say it’s moderate.  I have a sewing machine and can use the basic settings, but I wouldn’t say I know any advanced techniques. Having said that, I have been sewing for quite awhile and have made several quilts as well.

How long did it take you?
This is hard to determine now because I have made several and everything has blended together in my mind!  I was able to complete one of the simpler books in only a few evenings because the shapes were easy to cut and I sewed everything quickly on the sewing machine.  However, some of the pages (like the safari animal page and the gnome tree page) took multiple days because there were many pieces and everything is hand sewed.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?
There were a few pages that I replicated from onelovelylife.com and imagineourlife.com.  I designed some of the other pages from scratch and others I designed by combining ideas that I saw on pinterest.

How did you bind your quiet book?
I put grommets into two of the books.  For the ring book, I sewed ribbons into each circle.  For the first book, I just punched holes in each felt page and bound it with yarn.

What material are the pages made out of?
The pages are made of felt with a sheet of pellum stiffening fabric in each.

What other materials did you use?
I used felt, ribbon, yarn, elastic, buttons, beads, and some drapery fringe leftovers.

How much did all the supplies cost you?
I bought a packet of felt for approximately $25 and then multiple yards of pellum.  Other than that, the price was very reasonable.  The ribbon, buttons, and beads only cost a few dollars each and the fringe for the lion was cheap because it was in the clearance section at Joann Fabrics.

What's your favorite page? Why?
Wow, this is such a hard question to answer!  Maybe I’ll answer for each book.  For the first one, I’d say the flower-picking page because I know the little girl really enjoyed playing with the flowers.  For the second one, it’s a tie between the ice cream page (because I liked putting the ice cream cones together) and the horse braiding page because I like how the horse turned out.  For Liam’s book, my favorite page is definitely the gnome tree page.  I created that because I wanted a happy page that included lots of cute objects Liam could pull on and play with.  I also loved the idea of gnomes living in trees when I was a little girl so it reminds me of my childhood.  (However, his favorite page is the button page without a doubt!  He loves pulling on the buttons.)  Finally, I like all the pages on the ring book, but the dog is cute because you can wag his tail.


Thank you so much, Kristy, for sharing all of your awesome quiet books with us!

Have you made a quiet book that you'd like to share? Click here for instructions on how to submit your own quiet book!