Melina's Quiet Books

Today's awesome quiet books come to us all the way from Chile, made by mom Milena! They've got puzzles, memory games, counting games, and more.

Milena's first quiet book:

Milena's second quiet book:

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
I'm half time rheumathologist and half time wife and mother of three.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they? 
I made the first one for my oldest, who was 3 and a half when I did it, and the next one for my second of 2 years old.

What's your level of sewing experience? 
Basic.

How long did it take you? 
It took me too many hours, in about 2-3 months. But in that time I did 3 quiet books, one for my nephew too.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found? 
No, But I copied several ideas from pinterest.

How did you bind your quiet book? 
I sewed the pages together and to the cover. I used lots of glue for the figures.

What material are the pages made out of? What other materials did you use? 
Only felt.

How much did all the supplies cost you? 
I don't know, but not too much.

What's your favorite page? Why? 
Of the first quiet book, the memory game. My son loves it. And of the second book, the spy page.

 

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

Gabriela's Quiet Book

Today's awesome book was made by Gabriela for her niece; and has such cute pages (including a creative and adorable Russian stacking dolls page). Enjoy!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
Gabriela, mother of two very energetic boys, who works full time and still finds a way to create magic for the kids!

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they? 
I made this quiet book for my one year old niece.

What's your level of sewing experience?
Very beginner….

How long did it take you? 
It took around a month of just planning, researching materials and patterns and a month to put it all together (worked at nights, for around 2 hours a day, when I found the time!)

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found? 
Yes, I did research many templates on pinterest, such as:
http://quietbookblog.blogspot.com.br/2013/06/free-butterfly-quiet-book-template.html
http://www.kits-crafts.com/home/tales-of-a-quiet-book-babushkas-updated
http://charlaanne.typepad.com/charlaanne/2012/03/-doll-tutorial-.html
http://quietbookblog.blogspot.com.br/2014/11/magdas-princess-quiet-book.html
And others I mixed patterns to print and ideas I came up with, adapted pages.

How did you bind your quiet book? 
This is something I’m still not happy with. I cut a piece of felt a little bigger than the pages (the size of two pages) and sewed in the middle. Then I glued each finished page (with hot glue) in this blank new book. But hot glue did not seem to keep it in place, I hope it does…

What material are the pages made out of? 
Felt mostly, and I used some other fabric for the matrioshka (Russian doll) page.

What other materials did you use? 
Craft linen, paillettes, felt.

How much did all the supplies cost you? 
Not sure, I had a lot of things already, and shopped for things as I came up with the pages…

What's your favorite page? Why? 
I have two favorites – the Matrioshka (Russian doll) page, because I’m very proud of the way it turned out, I really didn’t think I could do it… and the pink doll page (with braidable hair), because my niece loved it since she loves ribbons and I think it turned out really cute!

Thank you so much for submitting your awesome book, Gabriela!

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

Amanda's Quiet Book

Hi everyone, happy Friday! I hope you've all had a good week. The quiet book I get to share with you today comes all the way from São Paulo, Brazil. Made by Amanda for her friend's son, this book is seriously awesome and just bursting with fun activities.

Amanda's has so many fun pages. It starts right off with an interactive cover, where the child's name is spelled out in letters that can velcro on and off of the page, and be stored in a pocket on the front. After the cover is unclasped and opened, you see a clown holding several colorful balloons. These can are also attached with velcro, and they can be switched around to the different color strings, or stored in the clown's sleeve. Opposite the clown is Mike Wazowski from Pixar's "Monster's Inc." Mike's mouth can be unzipped to reveal shapes that match the shapes on his page.

The next page has a car scene, with roads to drive on, a traffic light whose lights can be changed, and lots of different vehicles including a fire truck, ambulance, and cement mixing truck. The next page has a train with many different colored cars, each with a number to help practice counting.

The next page spread is an outer space scene, with a rocket, astronaut, comets, planets, aliens, and spaceships.When you turn the page again, you find a boy at a table. His mouth can be unzipped and you can pull a lot of different kinds of food out (a carrot, egg, watermelon, cookie chicken, etc.) that can be put on the plate in front of him and then "eaten." Next is a dog with a collar to buckle, a bone, and a dog house.

After the dog, the next page spread is a forest scene with all sorts of animals to play with and fun things to do. There's finger puppets of a rabbit, bear, squirrel, hedgehog, garden gnome, and fox, plus trees, a sun and raincloud that can move, a rainbow, a mushroom house, and more. I think this is my favorite page!

Next come an apple trees that also has a bee you can string through loops to get back to his beehive, and a frog that catches flies with his tongue. Then there's a sports page with a soccer ball to weave and a shoe to lace up, and finally, there's a dress up page with a little boy and a wardrobe full of clothes for him to wear.

Watch for yourself to see all the cool pages!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence. 
Hello! My name is Amanda, from São Paulo, Brazil. I love to work with my hands; I'm a dentist and a seamstress aspirant.

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they? 
My friend asked me to make this quiet book for his son, Bernardo, who is 2 years old.

What's your level of sewing experience? 
I'm a beginner. I learn something every day!!

How long did it take you?
I did this book on my vacation. I spent 15 days about 8 hours per day.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found? 
The templates were designed by me and my husband, Samuel (he is art director and he helped me a lot!), always inspired by many google images.

How did you bind your quiet book? 
The pages are sewn to each other by a piece of fabric on sewing machine.

What material are the pages made out of? 
The cover was made in fabric and the inside pages of felt. For the "stuffing," acrylic blanket.

What other materials did you use? 
I also used thread, ribbon, rings, buttons, velcro, pearls and zipper.

How much did all the supplies cost you? 
I probably spent about R$ 150 (US$ 50).

What's your favorite page? Why? 
My favorite page is the Enchanted Forest and its finger puppets.

Amanda, your book is amazing. Thank you 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!

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!