Lily's Quiet Book

Today's adorable quiet book is made by the talented Lily from the blog Craft Learn & Play. This is the first quiet book she made, for her nephew. She now makes quiet books that are for sale in her Etsy shop. You can see the quiet books she has for sale here: Vivid Leaf: Quiet Books for Babies and Toddlers.

Please enjoy!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
My name is Lily Zunic and I'm a first time mom who loves to create things; toys, games, decorations, accessories, food...well whatever I can think of. 
 
Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?
I've made this quiet book for my 2 year-old nephew who lives in Croatia. It was my first quiet book ever and had 16 pages in total.
 
What's your level of sewing experience?
Although my grandma taught me to sew when I was a kid, and I had a sewing course many years ago I would say intermediate.

How long did it take you?
It took me almost two months, not sure about hours. My baby girl was 5 months old at that time so I would sew whenever I had a little spare time.
 
Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?
No, I didn't use any templates for that book, though I found many ideas on Pinterest. Whatever I make I like to cut shapes and tell the story on the go. It is part of the process and is much more fun. And not using templates makes my books different one from another. But on the other hand I started making free templates from my quiet books for moms who want to make their own quiet book. They can be found on my blog: Craft Learn and Play: Quiet Book Ideas - Mother Hen with Chicks.

What material are the pages made out of?
Pages are made of cotton fabric in different patterns and colours. Inside every page is batting to make pages thicker and soft to touch.

What other materials did you use?Besides cotton I’ve used felt, ribbons, velcro, KAM snaps, magnets, nuts and wooden stick (for fishing page), zipper, minky fabric, wooden beads, buttons and even photograph for tractor page.  

What's your favorite page? Why?

Mine favourite page is piggy bank. I’ve made secret pocket, that little project was going on for two days until I manage to sew it properly. But it works perfectly. Every coin you put in piggy bank falls down between pages into wallet. It is great page for practice fine motor skills and zipping. But I love the most soft piggy made of my favourite minky fabric.

To see pictures of Lily's quiet book on her own blog (or to see more of her felt crafts), click here:  Craft Learn & Play: Very Special Boys Themed Quiet Book.

To see the quiet books Lily sells in her Etsy shop, click here: Vivid Leaf: Quiet Books for Babies and Toddlers.

Lily, thank you for sharing your 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!

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!

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!

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!

Helga's Felt Quiet Book

Good morning! Today I get to share you another quiet book made by Helga, who made the cotton and transfer paper book that was featured on Tuesday. I really love this quiet book; each page is so cute and I absolutely love all of the animals.

Here's a peekaboo tree page with an owl, a bird that can be taken in and out of its nest, a fox, a hedgehog and mushrooms, and a bee:

 A garden page with carrots and radishes that can come in and out, a ladybug, and a hiding bunny:

A farm page with finger puppets, a dog, a hiding pig, and a little chick (I love the chick!):

An arctic page with a penguin, a seal, and a peekaboo igloo with a polar bear inside:

A mountain page with a peekaboo bear cave, a raccoon, and a squirrel:

And a really cute nature scene with a caterpillar, a peekaboo log with a beaver hiding behind it, cute details like the little mushroom, and a cloud pocket:

This quiet book is so cute and so sweet, and each page looks so fun to play with. Thank you so much, Helga, for sharing it 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!