Paula's Quiet Book

Today's quiet book is so cute and it looks so fun to play with. Made by Paula for her two children, this book has lots of great activities for children to play with. Even the cover has an activity - a mailbox with a flag that goes up and down, and that opens to show letters inside that can be taken out. The cover also has a buckle to keep the pages shut, which is a smart way to keep everything together.

Paula says that her favorite page is her fridge and place setting, and I have to say, I love that page too. Her refrigerator design is so clever, cute, and easy. The food (sandwich materials) that go inside are adorable, and make me want to put together a felt sandwich right now. It looks so fun! I also like her barn and farm page, and like how she combined the apple tree and farm pages from the original template. I think it's a definite improvement, and looks really cute. Her cute music pages finish off the book, both of which are unique and fun!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
My name is Paula and I am a full time working mother of 2 children.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?
I made the quite book for my almost 5-year-old son and almost 2-year-old daughter. I wasn’t sure if I could commit to making two books so I had to try to make it appropriate for both of my children.

What's your level of sewing experience? 
Beginner / Intermediate. I have always been into crafts but only really been interested in sewing for the past 6 months.

How long did it take you?
3 weeks. 2 to 4 hours a day on most days.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?
I used mostly templates and inspiration from this blog (The Quiet Book Blog) and Pinterest.
Mailbox on the cover: Template - Imagine Our Life: Mailbox & Letters Quiet Book Page.
Refrigerator and Place Setting: Inspiration from: Sabrina’s Quite Book
Mr. Potato Head, Farm, Tree, and Lady Bug: Templates from Jocelyn's Quiet Book
Shapes and Music Pages: Inspiration from Pinterest but my own templates.

How did you bind your quiet book? 
Sewed it on the sewing machine.

What material are the pages made out of? 
The book was made from cotton and batting on each page. For most pages there is a full sheet of felt sewed to the cotton and batting backing.

What other materials did you use? 
A buckle to close the book, snaps, and velcro.

How much did all the supplies cost you? 
About $40 to $50 but I have a lot of supplies left over.

What's your favorite page? Why? 
I like the refrigerator and place setting with sandwich. I think that is one of the pages that I can add to as I think of different things.

Paula, 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!

Natalie's Quiet Book

Good morning! I have such a cute quiet book I get to share with you today. Natalie from the blog The Virginia Capells made this book for her son, using templates and inspiration from tons of different sites, and she did a great job!

Each page is so well made and looks so fun to play with. Natalie did a great job of choosing all the different pages and different activities - there are so many fun things in this book to keep someone occupied. It's really fun to see some made from The Quiet Book Blog's own templates! I don't think I could choose a favorite page from all of them, but one I haven't seen before and think is sooo darn cute is the piggy bank page. Also, I really liked how Natalie alternated blue and white pages for the backgrounds, and I really like the way the book is bound. Anyway, I'll stop rambling. Please enjoy Natalie's quiet book!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
I'm Natalie; I'm married, love to craft and sew, and am a stay-at-home mom to an adorably active little boy.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they? 
I made it for my son Hayden, who is just about to turn 2.

What's your level of sewing experience? 
Between Beginner and Intermediate. I like to do little sewing projects.

How long did it take you?
Well, I started in January and worked for a few weeks during nap time (2-3 hours each day) cutting, organizing, and doing a little sewing. I became burnt out and stir crazy so I put it away at the end of February. I picked it back up in May and worked solidly for two-three weeks for 3-5 hours a day. So, total assembly time, probably 3-4 hours a day for 4-6 weeks.

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

I used a TON of templates...

Potato Head: The Quiet Book Blog 

Barn: The Quiet Book Blog

Flowers: The Quiet Book Blog

Tic Tac Toe: Serving Pink Lemonade (I came up with my own thing for the X and O)

Toolbox & Tools: Serving Pink Lemonade (I just scaled it down to fit on the page) 

Road: Serving Pink Lemonade's Quiet Book Patterns, I got the house/building patterns from Camille's Casa

Noah's Ark: Free Patterns (I had to scale everything WAY down to make it fit, but it worked great!)

Dump Truck: All the Quiet Things (I decided to make it a counting page so just used the truck pattern)

Seasons Tree: Serving Pink Lemonade's Quiet Book Patterns

Mailbox: Imagine Our Life

The rest were inspired by things I saw online...

Baseball glove: Shouting for Ha

Shapes: Armelle Blog (I wanted more shapes so I used the patterns from Serving Pink Lemonade)

Piggy bank: The Crafting Chicks (We just made it look like the one in his room)

Cleat: All the Quiet Things

Balloons: Montoya's Meaningful Memories and Musings

Robot: The Riley's

How did you bind your quiet book?
Button holes & ribbon.

What material are the pages made out of? 
Felt (I added iron-on interfacing to the back-to-back pages to secure them better to each other).

What other materials did you use? 
Felt, freezer paper (to help cut out all the pieces), buttons, snaps, velcro, zippers, ribbon, puff paint, printable iron-on transfers, eyelets, cording.

How much did all the supplies cost you? 
Between $30 and $40. I didn't have much on hand to start with, and I wanted all my thread colors to match the felt, so I went a little overboard. I have leftovers of a lot of supplies so the next one won't cost as much.

What's your favorite page? Why? 
The mailbox. My husband and I typed up little notes to Hayden and I ironed them onto the felt, so he has actual letters from Mom and Dad in his mailbox.

To see Natalie's quiet book on her own blog (with more pictures and description), click here: The Capell Family: The Quiet Book.  Thank you so much for sharing your awesome quiet book with us Natalie!

 

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

Douaa's Sponge Quiet Book

It always amazes me how creative people can be when making quiet books, and I am so impressed with how Douaa from the blog Montessori World made this quiet book for her son. She made it using stiff sponges for pages, and using adhesive tape and glue to attach the designs to the pages. The whole book took her only five hours to make, in one day! That's definitely one of the fastest quiet books I've ever heard of. What a great, fast project if you want to make an easy quiet book!

I really like Douaa's page designs, especially the bunny that eats carrots. That is so cute and fun; I know I would have so much fun "feeding" the rabbit the carrots, let alone my kids. I'm totally making that page in the future. :D So, please enjoy Douaa's quiet book!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
My name is Douaa; I'm a pharmacist, mom of one. I'm interested in early learning of him with beautiful and innovative activities and tools.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they? 
18-months old Hamza.

What's your level of sewing experience? 
Beginner.

How long did it take you?
Five hours in one day.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found? 
No, I drew them myself.

How did you bind your quiet book? 
I used a cable tie!

What material are the pages made out of? 
You won't believe! ... I used the firm dishes sponges. XD I hot glued each two together to make one page of the book.

What other materials did you use? 
Felt, compressed foam, velcro, pipes cleaner.

How much did all the supplies cost you? 
Less than $4.

What's your favorite page? Why? 
My favorite is the Rabbit page, I love the idea. Hamza's favorite is the chicken page.

To see Douaa's quiet book on her own blog (with more pictures and description), click here: Montessori World: Interactive Activity Book.

Thank you so much for sharing your awesome quiet book with us, Douaa!

 

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!