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!

Nadia's Color Quiet Book

Last year I was able to share with you an awesome quiet book made by Nadia from the blog Basically Burt, and today I get to share another quiet book of hers with you!

Nadia recently made a colors-themed quiet book for her son. Many colors-themed quiet books are mostly touch-and-feel books, but Nadia wanted to add some activity to the book. To do so, she added pockets to each page and things that her son can color-match to the different colors. What a great idea! If I ever make a colors quiet book I think that I'll copy that idea. :) She also added a song about colors at the end, another really fun idea. So, enjoy Nadia's new book!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
My name is Nadia.I am a busy mum of one from Melbourne, Australia.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they? 
I made this book for my son who is 18 months old. I had previously made a more elaborate quiet book but wanted something simple that he could begin to use now. I got inspiration from a color quiet book floating around on pinterest which has beautiful patchwork pages. I however wanted to add an activity to the book, which was when I though of color matching and putting things in bags (which are both activities my son loves at the moment).

What's your level of sewing experience? 
I am not a beginner, but am by no means an expert. I enjoy patchwork, quilting and have made a couple of quiet books previously.

How long did it take you?
This book was fairly quick to make. I made it over three days in nap times and at night. It probably took about 10 hours in total.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found? 
I used no templates. I simply got my scraps of material and sewed them together until they were big enough to sew onto a double page.

How did you bind your quiet book? 
I simply sewed all the pages together down the center of the cover (and a couple of pages to each other).

What material are the pages made out of? 
The pages are made out of my scrap patchwork material, sewn together. These blocks are sewn onto a page which is made out of bedsheets a family member no longer wanted. The front cover is made out of fabric from an op shop.

What other materials did you use? 
I used organza drawstring bags to put the colored objects into (as I wanted something see through). I also used fusible interfacing to help attach the words and letters to the pages before sewing them. I used a fabric marker to write the words. The colored objects to match to each page are buttons and foam shapes that I found at a $2 shop.

How much did all the supplies cost you?
Given lots of my materials were second hand and scraps, this book cost very little. About $10 Australian all together.

What's your favorite page? Why?
Its hard to have a favorite, given that all the pages are the same. I do like the colors in the blue page!

To view Nadia's quiet book on her own blog, click here: Basically Burt: My Quiet Book.

Nadia, thank you so much for sharing your cute and smart colors 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!

Jean's Quiet Book

Today I get to share with you a really fantastic quiet book, one that I've admired for a long time. Made by Jean of Bubbles and Bobbins, this quiet book has a really fantastic garden and barn page, along with an adorable deer/apple tree page, an awesome puzzle page, and a really cute baking/cupcake page. I love it! Take a look; I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do.

To see Jean's quiet book on her own blog with more detail (and extra pictures, instructions, and her cupcake page template), check out these pages:
Bubbles and Bobbins: Activity Book (aka Quiet Book) - Garden, Barn, & Apple Tree Pages
Bubbles and Bobbins: Activity Book (Quiet Book)

Thank you so much for sharing your quiet book with us Jean!

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

Hannah's Church Quiet Book

Do you guys remember Hannah's cute baby quiet book from a couple months ago? Well, she made another quiet book after that one, and I get to share it with you today! (Both can be found on her blog, Sunburnt Strawberry.) She made this one for and about her church, and it is so cool! On the front cover she stitched her parish church; the activities inside the book include a "help the vicar get ready for service" dress-up page, a bell-ringing page, a prayer page, a congregation of finger puppets, a communion puzzle, and more. I love the idea of a church-themed quiet book for church; what a great way to both keep children quiet and help them focus on where they are. Here's Hannah's church quiet book!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence.
My name is Hannah, a science teacher and regular at my parish church since I was a small child.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?
This book is a little odd in that it was not made with a particular child in mind. We attend the family service at our local church and often we have kids visiting for christenings or church parades. Lots of parents worry about their kids squirming or making a noise (although we really don’t mind!) and a service can be a long time for some kids. So when I originally came across the quiet book idea on the Internet I thought it was genius and decided to make one for our service. The church is always trying to make people welcome and a “welcome to the church” quiet book seemed like a great idea (read took ages!) so off I went to make a quiet book tailor made to our church. I'm really glad I could do something to make visitors to our church a little more welcome!

What's your level of sewing experience?
Low-ish; I would say my confidence was boosted by making my previous small baby book so that I was brave enough to even start this project! On the other hand making this book taught me new skills (like using interfacing and bondaweb) so my skills are improving all the time!

How long did it take you? 
I can't even count! A couple of hours a weekend over 3 months, maybe 30 hours?

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?
I didn't use any templates, just sketched the designs out first and the cut the pieces out from their. I did make the cover using a photo of our church which I traced to give me a template which is a really good way to personalize your book.

How did you bind your quiet book?
I sewed the pages right sides together and then turned them out.The pages were then stitched together using a large zig zag stitch and the spine covered in denim. I chose denim to be hard wearing. I wrote a more detailed post (with pictures!) about the construction on my blog: Church Quiet Book Construction.

What material are the pages made out of?
Unbleached medium weight calico.

What other materials did you use?
Mainly felt for the pictures but also; Iron-on interfacing, Bondaweb (like wonder under), recycled jeans for denim, embroidery thread, poppers (snaps in America!), vinyl cut from a pencil case,  scraps of fake leather, ribbon, lace, velcro, buttons and beads from my stash.

How much did all the supplies cost you?
Around £20, mainly on the calico, interfacing and Bondaweb. I bought a couple of bits and bobs but I already had things too.

What's your favorite page? Why?
I love the dress up vicar and the tiny finger puppets, but the winner has to be the cover because it is so cool to have the church on the front! I also wrote a dedication on the back cover later to a very special lady in our congregation who passed away recently so that important to me.


To see Hannah's church quiet book on her own blog (with more details, pictures, and instructions), check out her blog posts: Church Quiet Book Construction, Church Quiet Book: The Final Product. Thank you for sharing your awesome church quiet book with us, Hannah!

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

Carrie's Quiet Book

Hey everyone! I love the quiet book I get to share with you today. It was made by Carrie of November Morning for her four-year-old son, and it has so much texture and detail that everything just pops off the page. The hand-stitching is so cute and I love that she uses textured felt - it's such a great way to add visual detail to a quiet book without more work. I would be very hard-pressed to choose a favorite page in this book, but if I had to choose one here I'd pick the seasons/tree page with changeable foliage and the laundry-line page next to it. Both pages are so cute and work so well together. Anyway, scroll down, look, and enjoy!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
Carrie.  I'm a crafting, knitting, photographing, sewing, and baking mama and wife.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?
I made this for my son a couple of months before he turned four.

What's your level of sewing experience?
I'm not an expert sewist by any means.

How long did it take you?
I'm not sure how long it took total but I'm sure it was many many hours.  I did a lot of hand-sewing and spread the work out over a couple of months.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?
I mostly cut and drew free-hand.  There is also a ton of inspiration on Pinterest.

How did you bind your quiet book?
I bound it using embroidery thread and this tutorial.

What material are the pages made out of?
Felt, felt, and more felt!

What other materials did you use?
Embroidery thread and snagless velcro.

How much did all the supplies cost you?
Maybe $50?

What's your favorite page? Why? 
It's too hard for me to pick favorite, but I am a tiny bit partial to the seasons pages.  O's current favorite is the mailbox pages.  Most of the adults that see it seem to like the robot page best.


A big post on the book (with more photos and lots of tips) can be found on Carrie's blog here: November Morning: O's Felt Book. Thank you so much for sharing your amazing quiet book with us, Carrie!

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