The Completed Quiet Book!

After Years, Months, and DAYS of preparation.

It's done!

Here it is.

I now present to you--

I gave it a simple  (-- too simple?) leather cover for the front and back.  I wanted something really sturdy that would protect my little book.  I might go back to the cover some day and add something to it, but for now it suits me.

Page 1 is a simple page with just the word FAMILY and our picture. All around the green fabric I sewed on clear vinyl so the picture is removable. It is closed with a small piece of Velcro.

Page 2 is the Family Tree page (click here for the tutorial).  The kids can put the apples where ever they want.  The pictures are sewed on with clear vinyl and are placed around the tree with velcro. The apples are stored when not in use behind the tree.

Page 3 is Miss Ladybug where inside the zipper is the lady bug's circles which can be attached onto the ladybug with snaps.

 Page 4 is a simple countdown and blast off to the moon.

Page 5 is practicing tying laces with the football laces. (Notice the small grommets I used on this page.  I talk about grommets here.)

The next two pages I made sure were next to each other.  I really loved making these barns.

Page 6 is the Tractor Barn.  I bought some John Deere fabric that I couldn't resist making soft tractors with.

Page 7 is the animal barn with 4 little finger animal puppets.

Page 8 is the Temple page with felt flowers that can be rearranged with the buttons.

Page 9 is straight up kid overalls that the kids can practice doing different snaps and zippers.

Page 10 is the egg page with six different little guys in each egg.

Page 11 is the counting button page.

Page 12 is actually the favorite page and has gotten the most played with.  The kids take out keys and locks and try to figure out which key goes to which lock.

Whoa, made it!
What a Fun project this has been.

It really did not necessitate three years of my life to make....but you know how these things go.

If you haven't seen my other posts dedicated to the Quiet Book this week, here they are.
The Round UP
My Sketches
Family Tree Tutorial page
How to Bind Your Quiet Book

Linked in!

How to Bind Your Quiet Book Pages

If you missed my other pages dedicated to Quiet Books, here they are:

The Round-Up

My Sketches

Family Tree Page

Now we're on to binding my pages.  

Once I had all my pages completed I had to decide how I was going to bind them together.

I had decided early on that I should make the pages removable, so the book could be taken apart and shared with siblings and I could add to it as time went on.  

So the best approach I could think of to do this was to invest in Grommets.

I bought two different types.

1. A kit with small grommets and pliers from JoAnns

2. And a kit with larger ones from Roberts (which doesn't exist anymore-- boo-hoo).  

But here's something like what I purchased from Amazon.

MATERIALS:

1. Completed Quiet book pages

2. Grommet pliers

3. Grommets

4. Felt

STEP ONE:Once all the pages are completed, pin them together with right sides facing each other.

STEP TWO: Sew around three of the sides leaving the side where the felt binding is going to be open.

Warning: Don't sew part of your page into the seams.

Flip pages right side out.

STEP THREE: Cut felt so that there is enough to be folded on each side.

STEP FOUR: Pin and sew first side of the felt.

STEP FIVE: Fold down the top of the felt- pin.  Fold the rest of the felt in half on the sides- pin.

STEP SIX: Sew around the entire felt binding.

STEP SEVEN: Using the grommit pliers, make two holes into the felt where the grommets will be placed.

Because these pliers are meant for much smaller grommets than I was using, I widened the hole with my scissors.

These are the tools that I bought in the kit from Roberts (plus a lot more grommet rings).

The order to placing things is:

1. whatever that thing is

2. that grommet

3. FABRIC

4. Next grommet

5. Umm, that thing

6. Hammer or Mallet.

STEP EIGHT:  Bang, Bang, hammer it all together until the grommets are all stuck together.

STEP NINE: All done, so simple, yet professional looking.

Please stay tuned for Tomorrow, where I'll share the Completed Book!

Family Tree Page Quiet Book Tutorial

I did 12 pages for my Quiet Book.  Most of them are self-explanatory so I didn't do a tutorial.

However, I really had a lot of fun making my Family Tree page, so I made this tutorial.

I got the idea for this tree from A Million Little Things.

MATERIALS:

1. Fabric (3 different green patterns, and one brown pattern)

2. Cotton

3. Felt (green and red)

4. vinyl

5. velcro

6. Small pictures of your family

STEP ONE: Cut out the fabrics to make the background of page. 

Cut out the shape for the tree trunk.

STEP TWO: Cut out all the leaves to make the top of the tree.

STEP THREE: Sew down the background green fabrics.

STEP FOUR: Sew on the brown tree trunk.  

While sewing down leave a gap open to fill with a little cotton. Then continue sewing the tree trunk down.

STEP SIX: Place and pin leaves onto felt, for the top of the tree. 

Cut out the felt for the treetop shape.

STEP SEVEN: Sew leaves onto felt, going around each leaf.  

Trim off extra felt.

When completed, sew tree leaves onto page.  Sew around the bottom (only half way).

STEP EIGHT:  Cut out felt apples.

Cut out small pictures.

Glue pictures onto felt.

Place vinyl on top of apple.

STEP NINE: Sew vinyl onto apple.

It was really hard to sew the vinyl onto felt, so I had to do most of the work with the hand knob.

Trim off extra vinyl.

STEP TEN: Decide where the apples should go. 

Glue one dot for each velcro piece.

STEP ELEVEN: Place glue on the back of apples.

Place one velcro piece for each.

STEP TWELVE: Place velcro in place to close the tree pocket.

When not in use apples can stay behind the tree.

STEP THIRTEEN: Place apples around tree.  

ENJOY!

This is how to make the Family Tree page.  

Tomorrow I'll be sharing  how to bind all the pages.

Ideas.

My very first step of making my Quiet Book was scouring the internet for some good ideas.

See my post yesterday for whose ideas I liked best.

After some inspiration I sat down and sketched out what I wanted each page to look like.

Here are those original sketches:

Of course not all my ideas came to life.

This last sketch I never made:

Quiet Book Round-up

Firstly...I'm dedicating this week to QUIET BOOKS.

I decided to start make a quiet book in October so I'd have plenty of time to work on it before Christmas.

Good news.

I got it done.

Bad new.

The October I was referring to was 2009.

Yes, friends, it took me 3 years technically to get this project completed.

But-- that three years does not accurately reflect the amount of time I honestly put into it.

It was one of those projects that I would work on, have tons of fun-- get burned out on-- forget about...then return to when I remembered it again several months (years) later.

When I started this project I remember as clear as day my husband asking me, "Is this one of those huge projects you're going to start-- run out of time and never finish?"

"No, I'll finish it.  I'll have plenty of time."

Ha, hah, guess I proved him wrong.

Anyways, before I share my completed book, I wanted to share with you where I got my inspiration from:

1. Homemade by Jill.  Love her blog.  Love her book. 



2. The Crafting Chicks. Book One.


3. The Crafting Chicks.  Book Two. I also referred to this Quiet Book.



4. A Million Little Things. She has made a lot of quiet books.  All beautiful.



5. Little Hands Big Work. 


Aren't these fun?  Don't you feel inspired to make one now?