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!

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!

Jaime's Quiet Book

Today I get to show you a super cute quiet book from Jaime of the blog Crafty Math Mama. All of her pages look so fun - it starts off with a page where you can braid Rapunzel's hair, a page with a personalized felt family and pets, a dog with collar to buckle, a purse with lots of fun things inside, a pizza with toppings, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, a fishing page, the Eensy-Weensy Spider, a pirate page, and a music page (I love how on the music page the notes can slide along their strings!). Jaime's favorite page is the family page, and it's definitely one of my favorites too - how fun would having little dolls of your own family be for a child? This whole book is awesome. So please enjoy!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence.
My name is Jaime and I'm a mom of a 2 year old named Delia with a baby boy on the way! When I'm not at my job teaching math, I love to craft, sew, bake, and decorate cakes.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?
I made this quiet book for my daughter Delia to give to her for her 2nd birthday. She is now almost 2 1/2.

What's your level of sewing experience?
I can sew basic things. I learned in school and from my mother. My sewing experience includes these quiet book pages, pillows, and a few dresses for Delia.

How long did it take you?
I'm not sure how many hours this quiet book took me. I started last summer sewing maybe an hour or two each night and then when school started again I didn't have time to continue. When I had Christmas and Winter breaks I took the time to finish up what I wanted to include before Delia's birthday in March.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?
I used one of the Quiet Book Blog's templates for Mr. Potato Head and the others I used were from ImagineOurLife.com. Some pages I took ideas from Pinterest and recreated them in my own way.

What material are the pages made out of? What other materials did you use?
The pages are made of felt and most of the decorations are made from felt and sewn with embroidery floss. Some pages have little random trinkets like the dog collar, jewels, hair clips, buttons, ribbon, and magnets.

How much did all the supplies cost you?
The wonderful thing about quiet books is that they can be very cheap to make. Felt is only about $0.30 per plain sheet and about $1.00 for a patterned piece. Anything extra I had to get, I tried to get from the dollar store or the dollar bins at the craft store.

What's your favorite page? Why?
My favorite page is probably the page I designed to look like our house. It has finger puppets of all our family members including baby who is on the way.


To view Jaime's quiet book on her own blog, with more pictures and a lot more explanations, click here: Crafty Math Mama - Delia's Quiet Book. 

Jaime, thank you so much for sharing your adorable 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!