Clara's Quiet Book

Today's post is special because we've never had a quiet book presented like this before. Clara from the blog Claras Nahkiste, instead of taking pictures of her quiet book, has made this video where she walks through the book and shows all of the interactive things that it does.

Clara's quiet book is huge and awesome. She has so many pages, and all of them look so fun to play with. Her video shows a clever cover and binding rings, a dress up page full of little clothes, a name page with moveable letters, a laundry page with socks that can go in a washing machine, an "I Spy" page with a removable bag full of things to find, a fruit-picking tree page (with multiple kinds of fruits and baskets, a weather and flower page,  a farm page (with adorable finger puppets - sooo cute), an igloo page with ice building blocks and snow characters, a car page with a big map of the town, an elephant with a tail you can braid, a camping page with a zipper tent, a clock page with moveable hands, and a mailbox with letters inside. Each page has more detail than I've summed up here, that's shown in the video. 

This book would be such a treasure to have as a child!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
My name is Clara, I'm 23 and I'm a crazy, sewing, Berlin teacher-to-be.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?
 I made this book for my niece and godchild Sophie for her third birthday.

What's your level of sewing experience? 
I sew for more than three years now and I think I'm advanced.

How long did it take you?
I sew it over three weeks, in my semester break, all in all it took 66 hours.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?
I used some templates from this blog and many inspirations from Pinterest.

What material are the pages made out of? 
They all are made of cotton fabric in different colors, many details are made out of felt.

What other materials did you use? 
Felt, as mentioned and something that's called Vliesofix in Germany. It's used to make appliqués.

How much did all the supplies cost you? 
Because I bought nearly no fabric, the costs were small. I think about 30€.
  
What's your favorite page? Why?
My favourite page is definitely the car-page. I love, that the lights of the car can flash and that my niece can visit her grandmothers or grandfathers house. It's also the page, she likes most :)

To see Clara's quiet book on her own blog with some pictures and explanation of the book, click here: Claras Nahkiste: Quietbook Zum 3. Geburtstag.

Clara, thank you so much for sharing your wonderful quiet book 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!

Donna's Quiet Book

Happy Wednesday! I hope your week has been a little bit warmer than ours; we had some freezing rain last night and all the schools in the area canceled school because of the ice! So we're wearing warm clothes and trying to stay cozy inside.

Today I get to share with you a quiet book made by Donna, a stay at home mom who made this book for her friend's son. It is such a cute book and has some unique, really fun pages! The first page is a "Dress Jake" page, for fans of the "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" show. Donna's Jake and his clothes are so cute and so like the cartoon! I love it. She also has a piggy bank page, a camping page, a toolbox page, a dog page, a pizza page, and a car page. One of the details I really like is the pepperoni on the pizza page - each pizza slice has a different number of pepperonis, so kids can use the different slices to count up to four. Very easy, and clever! So without further ado, her is Donna's adorable quiet book!

 Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
Donna, I'm a stay at home mom and love crafting.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?
My friends little boy. He is two.

What's your level of sewing experience? 
Beginner.

How long did it take you?
About 10 hours over about one week.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found? 
No templates really. Just kind of drew them out from looking at pictures. I did get some ideas from other books I have seen on Pinterest. The camping idea came from Imagine Our Life: Camping Quiet Book Page.

How did you bind your quiet book? 
With eyelets.

What material are the pages made out of? 
Felt.

What other materials did you use? 
Cotton.

How much did all the supplies cost you? 
Around $20.

What's your favorite page? Why? 
The dress up Jake because that is my friends sons favorite character.

Thank you so much for sharing your super cute quiet book, Donna!

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

Marci's Quiet Book

Today's quiet book is fantastic. It is seriously so cute, so well made, and looks so fun.

Made by Marci of the blog If These Walls Could Speak, this book has so many awesome pages. It has a painter's palette with colors to match, a shape matching page with a ton of shapes, a camping page with an adorable tent, little finger puppets in sleeping bags, and stars and a moon that are snap on/off, a lion ribbon page, a mailbox with envelopes whose stamps velcro on and off and felt "letters" inside, a puzzle page with three amazing puzzles, a Mr. Potato Head page with awesome accessories, a colorful caterpillar page, a shoe-lacing page, a car and traffic page with velcro road signs, a laundry line page with matching socks, a build-a-snowman page with two snowman and accessories, and a Christmas tree with a lace-up ribbon and tree decorations that snap on and off.

I love this book. It is so cute and every page is packed with fun activities. I love all the details, like the little stars on the camping page that snap on and off, and the stamps on the letters, and the banners on the cover, and the little finger puppets in their sleeping bags. I'm definitely inspired by this book, and I hope you will be too! Enjoy!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
 I'm Marci. I'm a wife, blogger, DIY-er and stay-at-home mama to 2 boys!

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?
I originally made it for my son, Jack, who was 17 months at the time we gifted it to him on Christmas Eve. However, it's intended to be played with by our younger boy as well and any other future children!

What's your level of sewing experience? 
Somewhere between beginner and intermediate. I've done a lot of sewing projects but I prefer to stick with "small" projects like this quiet book, bow ties, etc. I'm also terrible at following patterns - I pretty much wing everything I do.

How long did it take you?
About 5 months of working on it off and on during nap time. I would say each page took an average of 5 hours so total time was probably around 80 hours.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?
I used the Mr. Potato Head template from this blog but for everything else I looked at pages on Pinterest and then created it myself without patterns.

How did you bind your quiet book? 
I used three grommets per page and intended to hold the book together with D rings but I haven't yet found any big enough so it's currently held together by ribbons threaded through the grommets.

What material are the pages made out of? 
Felt.

What other materials did you use? 
Snaps, velcro, sequins, grommets, ribbons, buttons, zipper, shoelaces, mini clothespins.

How much did all the supplies cost you? 
I had a lot of supplies on hand already but I probably spent somewhere between $30-$40 on items I didn't already have.  

What's your favorite page? Why? 
I think I love the tent/camping page the most just because it's so interactive! The star/moon snaps, the zip, and the finger puppets all make it a really fun page! It's also one of the few pages that has something unique I hadn't seen somewhere else first (the finger puppets in sleeping bags inside the tent).

To see Marci's quiet book on her own blog, with more pictures and detail, click here: Jack's Quiet Book - Revealed! Thank you so much, Marci, for sharing your fantastic quiet book 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!

Kristy's Quiet Book

Before I show you today's AWESOME quiet book, I just want to remind you again to enter this week's giveaway! You could win Amy's Pincock's book "Quiet Book Patterns: 25 Easy-to-Make Activities for Your Children." The giveaway closes Monday at midnight (PST), so be sure to enter now before you forget!

Just click on this picture!

With that said, let's get to today's quiet book! This book was made by Kristy of the blog "The Art of Everyday Life," and it is so well made. I really really love her hot air balloon and boat pages - I've never seen pages like that before, and they're so cheerful and cute! I also really like how there's a doll on a ribbon that can play on every page. It's such a fun idea and works especially well with pages made for the doll, but you could add one even to a quiet book you've already made.

Kristy made templates of her quiet book pages, and they're for sale in her Etsy shop. You can find them here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/artineverydaylife.

Enjoy!

 

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
Kristy. I’m a creative, curious, unconventional, oh so grateful work-from-home mom to two precious girls and wife to one awesome husband.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?
 My now 5 year old daughter, Ada. I gave it to her when she was 3. I’m now working on one for my 3 year old, Cora.

What's your level of sewing experience? 
I have been sewing by hand for years. I’m mostly self-taught. I’m good with my hands, but I think just about anyone could make a quiet book like this if they wanted. Especially with all the great training videos on-line these days.

How long did it take you?
It’s a little hard to say. I work on these types of projects a little bit at a time between diapers and feeding and cleaning and all that other homemaking, working, living stuff. I also usually have several creative projects going at one time. It’s just the way my mind works. It took me about a year(!) probably to get this finished. I would guess it was close to 60-80 hours total. But I designed every page myself, so a lot of that was design time.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found? 
I design my own templates! They can be found here: www.etsy.com/shop/artineverydaylife.

How did you bind your quiet book? 
Grommets and binder rings. (Cutting a hole in and adding grommets to pages that took you hours and hours to create is a terrifying experience, by the way.)

What material are the pages made out of? 
Wool felt. I'm so glad I went with wool felt, it has held up beautifully!

What other materials did you use? 
Bits of fabric and embroidery floss and a few buttons here and there.

How much did all the supplies cost you? 
Another tough answer because so much of the material I had on hand, or I only used part of in this project so I have scraps for other projects. I would guess around $20 - $30.

What's your favorite page? Why? 
I don’t necessarily have a favorite page, but I do have a favorite element – the bees. Bees are sort of my symbol. I love that they are this sweet little hidden surprise on most every page. It was a fun challenge to design the pages around a place to hide a bee.

To get all of Kristy's adorable patterns, visit her etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/artineverydaylife. She's working on a new quiet book right now (which you can get a sneak peek at on her blog, here!).

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful quiet book with us, Kristy!

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