Kate's Roll-up Quiet Book

Today's innovative quiet book comes to us from Kate, a writer and book reviewer who writes the blog Blondie Marie. She made this roll-up quiet book mat for her son. The four pages are sewn side by side with a denim backing, and they can all be rolled up together and closed with a button. It's such a cute book and a great idea; I especially love all the animals that are hiding behind the doors of the barn! All of the pages look very fun and interactive.

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence.
My name is Kate, and I am a writer, blogger and book reviewer living in northwest Iowa.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they? 
I made this book (mat) for my son, Emmett. He's one year old now, but I'm hoping this can carry him through a few stages.

What's your level of sewing experience? 
Intermediate to mildly advanced. I think the mat stayed beginner-to-intermediate.

How long did it take you? 
I spent about a month on it, working a few hours here and there. Total? Maybe 40? I'm not entirely sure. The farm scene by far took the most time. Most of the other ones I could knock out in a couple of hours.

Did you use any templates? 
Yes! The lion I took from Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows, and I also used her barn template as the basis for my barn. The animals I found the basis for on another website, but I can't remember which one. I altered those patterns too, though.

How did you bind your quiet book? 
I went roll-up-mat-style with a button and button-hole closure.

What material are the pages made out of? 
Felt. The backing is a denim-type fabric I had on hand. There's also a layer of felt between the panels and the backing, for a little added thickness.

What other materials did you use? 
Ribbon for the lion panel, elastic for the farm scene and the bead panels and Velcro for the farm scene and color squares panels. The stitching is all in floss. I used a strap along the backing as well, and a button to close.

How much did all of the supplies cost you? 
About $40, but I have a lot felt, floss, Velcro and beads left over that I can use on other projects.

What's your favorite page? Why? 
I should say the farm scene because it definitely has the most blood, sweat and tears in it. But I love the color squares page, because I like the simplicity and the challenge for Emmett to match the swatches to the colors on the panel.

Kate, thank you so much for sharing your awesome 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!

Renee's Quiet Books

Today I get to share with you not one, but four quiet books! These were made by mom Renee, and I love how she did it. She used the templates available here, and instead of binding all the pages into one large book, she bound each two-page spread into it's own book.

I love this idea because sometimes a big, full quiet book can be too bulky for wherever you're going - but two-page books like this could be perfect. And I love the felt she used for the covers!

 Quiet book 1:

Quiet book 2:

Quiet book 3:

Quiet book 4:

Renee, thank you so much for sharing your adorable quiet books!

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

Neli's Quiet Book

Today's book comes to us from Bulgaria, made by mother Neli for her daughter. It is an adorable book and I hope it can inspire you!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
My name is Neli and I am from Bulgaria.  

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?
I made the book for my daughter's second birthday. Her name is Maria so we call her Mimi :)  

What's your level of sewing experience?
I don't have any sewing experience.
 
How long did it take you? 
It took me about 6 weeks, 2-3 hours a day.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?
I didn't use any templates. I looked on Pinterest and YouTube for inspiration and after that I drew it by myself.

What material are the pages made out of?
The book is made by felt.
 
What's your favorite page? Why?
My favorite page are the front and the back cover because they are all my idea.

Neli, thank you so much for sharing your wonderful 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!

Yankee's Quiet Book

Today's quiet book comes to us from Yankee, and it is so cute.

The front cover has a name sewn onto it, along with a car that has a little pocket. Peppa Pig and her family are finger puppets that fit into the pocket and look like they're driving in the car.

The book opens up to show a car page with several adorable little vehicles, including an ambulance and a fire truck, and several road signs (like a traffic light, stop sign, etc.). Across from the car page is a laundry page with a washing machine, lots of clothes, a clothes line, and socks that velcro off the page.

Next Yankee has a clock page with colorful numbers and moveable hands, and a shoe-tying page where children can practice making a bow.

Next comes one of my favorite pages - Cookie Monster! Cookie Monster's mouth zippers open and you can pull out a lot of cookies, each of which has a different number of chocolate chips sewn on top. These match to numbers on the next page, for children to practice counting and number recognition.

The next page is absolutely adorable, too. It's a nature scene with an apple tree (whose apples you can pick and put in a basket) and several animals to play with - a cow, giraffe, elephant, and lion. Opposite the apple tree page is an alligator (or crocodile) with a bird on his nose and a zipper mouth. Underneath him in the water there are several fish that can velcro off the page and go inside of his mouth.

The last pages in the book are a flower page and a shape page. The flowers can button on and off of their stems and store in the flower pot. The shapes page has ridiculously cute shapes (I love how they're puffy/stuffed) which velcro off and can be matched the their embroidered shapes on the page.

It is an adorable book and looks so fun to play with. Thank you for sharing it with us, Yankee!

 

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

Winnie's Quiet Book

Today's adorable quiet book comes to us from Winnie of the blog Be A Creative Mom. She hand-sewed the entire thing in just about a week, which is seriously impressive! I love the look that hand-sewing gives quiet books, and I especially love the embroidery that Winnie added to the front and back covers.

In addition to the awesome embroidered covers, Winnie's quiet book has a safari animals page (the animals are hanging on buttons, and can be removed and played with), a purse page (with toys to find inside), a shapes page, a numbers page (which flaps that lift up with objects underneath for children to count), a telephone page (with velcro numbers), a bee and flowers string page, a ribbon page, and an octopus page (with beads on his tentacles to count).

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
My name is Winnie; I am a mom of 2 living in Singapore.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they? 

I made this book for my one-year-old daughter.

What's your level of sewing experience? How long did it take you?
I consider myself a intermediate sewer, as I hand sew lots of stuff. My speed is actually decent. The book took me about one week to finish while sewing 2 hours a day. So roughly 14-15 hours.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found? 

I used some from online. I don't remember all of the resources so just listed what I can find as below. Just want to say thank you to all the fantastic moms who posted their templates.
The purse page is from Apron Girls: Quiet Book.
Ribbon page is from And Next Comes L: Ribbon Pulling Quiet Book Page.

Forgot where the octopus and bee is from... But they are super famous quiet book pages!

How did you bind your quiet book? 

Just by sewing.

What material are the pages made out of? 

Felt.

What other materials did you use? 

Beads, ribbons, yarn, velcro, a key, a card,etc.
 

How much did all the supplies cost you? 

About $15-20.

What's your favorite page? Why?  

I simply love them all... I worked quite a bit to design and find pages suit my 1 yr old girl. My girl loves the octopus beads page the most.

To see Winnie's quiet book on her own blog, click here: Be A Creative Mom - Quiet Book. Winnie, thank you so much for sharing your quiet book!

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

Tiffany's Etsy Quiet Books

Today's quiet books are awesome. They are made by Tiffany of Always Sewin' Somethin!, the same talented seamstress who made the books featured on Monday and Wednesday of this week. The books featured today are both really cute and available for sale in her Etsy Shop.

There are a lot of pictures below, so let me take a moment explain what all of the quiet books are before you scroll down. First of all, there are three different versions of Color quiet books. These three books are different sizes and have different features, but are all focused on color. Secondly, there is a Shapes quiet book. Finally, there is full, twenty-six page ABC quiet book, and an example of the Personalized Name quiet books that Tiffany makes. You can also see any and all of these quiet books in Tiffany's Etsy Shop.

So let's dive in!

The three Colors quiet books:

Interview for the Colors quiet books

How long did it take you?
Since I intended to list this in my Etsy shop, I kept extensive notes on how my time/money was spent. The button version took about 10 1/2 hours, the regular version took about 7 hours and the mini version took about 5 1/2 hours. I worked mostly during naptime over the course of a month or two.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?

Nope. The designs are completely my own. I did do some google image searches to help come up with good shapes.

How did you bind your quiet book?

Two metal key rings.

What material are the pages made out of?

Pellon Extra Firm interfacing.

What other materials did you use?

I went to JoAnns and got a four inch cut of anything I found that had a unique texture. There is some minky, vinyl, toweling, velvet, mesh, denim, satin, ribbon, and even a little burlap in there.

I also used buttons and velcro for attaching the shapes.

What's your favorite page? Why?

The pink pages are my favorite because I just love the furry pink minky.  :)


The Shapes quiet book:

 Interview for the Shapes quiet book

How long did it take you?

This book took me about 6 1/2 hours to make.  I worked on it during naptimes over the course of a week or two.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?

I designed all the pages myself.  In fact, I have gotten so many views from Pinterest, I decided to write a pattern for it, which can be found HERE.

How did you bind your quiet book?

Two Metal Key Rings.

What material are the pages made out of?

Pellon Extra Firm interfacing.

What other materials did you use?
Felt, Buttons, Ribbon, Velcro, Thread, Flannel

What's your favorite page? Why?

I think the car page is my favorite.  I like the big button wheels.


The ABC and Personalized Name quiet books:

Interview for the ABC and Personalized Name quiet books

How long did it take you?
The ABC book took about 20 hours.  I've been working on it off and on for a LOT of months.  Connor's book took about 6 hours and about a week.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?

Nope.  All the designs are my own.  Although I did do a lot of searching on Pinterest and later google images for ideas.

How did you bind your quiet book?

Two binder rings and a hole punch.  The ABC book turned out SO FAT that I had to add a strap to keep it closed!

What material are the pages made out of?

Pellon Extra Firm interfacing.

What other materials did you use?
Felt, Buttons, Ribbon, Velcro, Thread, snaps, beads, craft sticks, googly eyes, yarn, zipper, faux leather.

What's your favorite page? Why?

I love how Connor's octopus page turned out (it's much cuter in real life) and I love the xylophone page.  My boys' favorite seems to be the puzzle page.

To see the Colors quiet books on Tiffany's blog, click here: New Quiet Books: Colors!
To see the Shapes quiet book on Tiffany's blog, click here: Shapes Quiet Book. 
To see the ABCs and Name quiet books on Tiffany's blog, click here: New Quiet Book: ABCs!
To see all of these books in Tiffany's Etsy shop, click here: Always Sewin' Somethin! Etsy Shop.

Thank you for sharing all of your fabulous quiet books with us, Tiffany!

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