Quiet Book Fishing Page

I was a touch late to church today; and as I tried to slip into the chapel inconspicuously during the opening hymn, I was delighted to find an extra seat next to my dear neighbor and her sweet 20-month-old. When her daughter started to get antsy during the service (as most toddlers do), I was so happy to hand over our quiet book.

I have to tell you, I'm pleasantly pleased with our great quiet book project. SourPatch really does enjoy it, and though I specifically bring it to church, he pulls it off the shelf on his own volition while we're at home to play with his favorite pages.

Now that we have used the book for a while, I've noticed a few things I would do differently the second time around. One, I've realized that not all snaps are created equal. Little silver snaps? Awesome, and great for little hands to learn dexterity. Little white snaps? Not-so-awesome. Hard for little hands to use... and hard for adult hands as well.

Two, be sensible when deciding which way to orient the pages. Why did I put the tree next to the binder rings?? It makes it that much harder to snap the leaves onto the tree (along with the evil white snaps!) Not the best idea; I should have sewn the buttonholes on the other side.

Speaking of buttonholes, have we discussed how proud I am of the button holes I used to bind the book? I wondered if I'd regret not using grommets, but I'm exceptionally pleased with my buttonholes. They are sturdy, the pages turn easily, and that's one more skill I learned to do on my sewing machine! Yes, I do still have sticky notes on my machine to remind me which knob does what, but I really am getting more proficient. Baby steps, my friends.

Mom recently gifted a few more pages to add to SourPatch's book (but I sewed them together and added the button holes! So we basically made them together, right?) Today I want to share James' favorite: The Fishing Page.

There's not a lot to it, but I think that's part of the point and the appeal. You snap off the colorful felt fish and add them to the fisherman's net.

Since our quiet book is a staple at church, I like to think of it as a scene from Matthew 4 or John 21. 

Quiet Book of Wonder

Alright friends: As you may recall, we three sisters and our mother engaged in a quiet book page swap last Christmas. The idea was that it’s easier to make 3 of a few pages to share rather than create 10 unique pages all by oneself. And yes, it took me several months to actually sew and bind mine together. Still, I learned to sew buttonholes in the process! Hooray! One more new sewing machine skill I can chalk up, right? But I digress...

There are some amazingly cute quiet books out there, aren’t there? Some are so beautiful! And time-intensive… and even kind of expensive. Our particular venture was not to be that kind of book. We wanted something fun and cute but also something simple that wouldn't break the bank. So without further ado:

The Cute, Quick, Inexpensive Quiet Book of Wonder

Elin's Armor of God Page

Mom's Magnet Board

Mom's Tic-Tac-Toe and Gumball Pages

Mom's Mr. Potato Head

Mom's Stoplight and Laurel's Baseball Glove

Laurel's Clock Page

Quiet Book Page: Gumball Machine

Like the stoplight page, this page is wonderful for SourPatch's fine motor movement. He's still happy just pulling off the gumballs and putting them back in any little circle. As he gets a little older, he'll enjoy matching the numbers, too.

And me? Mostly I think this page is adorable.

Quiet Book Page: Tic-Tac-Toe

For the older bunch, this is a brilliant way to keep kids quiet and engaged! I was skeptical that the swinging pouch would actually keep the Xs and Os in place, but I have been pleasantly pleased! It would be easy to add another zippered holder like the one on mom's Mr. Potato Head page if desired.

Quiet Book Page: Stoplight

This one is a keeper. It's just the right size for thick, not-quite-two-years-old fingers that are learning dexterity, color, and shapes. Good work, mum.

Quiet Book Page: Mr. Potato Head

Classic page, mom. SourPatch loves it, despite not actually knowing where to put the pieces yet. I love how you used a zippered pouch to hold the pieces. A toddler like Patches can enjoy the zipper and bright pieces. Then, when he is older, he can make fun faces with his two-dimensional potato head. It's a page that will grow with him.

Quiet Book Page: Clock

This page is kind of experimental. All I did was buy foam clocks from the dollar section of Target and stitch them into place, I am a little worried about their durability, but SourPatch hasn't pulled the foam hands off of his book so far! And much to my surprise, this was the page my niece was SO excited about (she is learning to tell time). All of the kids were pretty enthusiastic actually... go figure. Sometimes it's the simple things...

Quiet Book Page: Armor of God

Oh my cute. Elin, you did a marvelous job on this page based off of Doctrine and Covenants 27:15-18. It's one of SourPatch's favorites.

Quiet Book: Magnet Board Page

The four of us are collaborating on making quiet books for our children/grandchildren. It has been fun looking at other people's ideas online as well as trying to come up with creative ideas of our own. Recently, I found a magnetic nativity scene at a thrift store,  and I thought how great it would be to have a magnet board page for our quiet books.

I began by cutting a rectangle of felt about an 1 1/2" smaller than my finished quiet book page would be. I centered it on the page and zigzagged it in place. Since it wouldn't be possible to turn this page right side out once the sheet metal is in place, it is important to either use it as a page by itself at the front or back of your quiet book, or sew it to the page that it will be back to back with at this point--before adding the metal--and turn it inside out.

Not long ago I purchased a thin sheet of metal at Home Depot for something else, and there was plenty left over for this project. But you can also buy smaller, prepackaged sheets at Hobby Lobby or other craft stores. I liked cutting my own because I was able to make it larger:

I cut my metal to size with tin snips--about an inch smaller than the felt--and rounded the corners to minimize poke-age potential:

Using E6000, I glued the metal sheet to the felt I had sewn onto my page. My concern about this project is that the edges of the metal might be hazardous. So I was especially careful to put the glue very near the edge of the metal and then push the edges hard into the felt. I bought magnet letters and numbers at the dollar store and will keep my eye out for other fun magnet sets for future use. (Be sure to keep in mind the age of your user; you don't want your magnets to be a choke hazard.)

I wanted a way to store the magnets that also provides a "skill" page. Here are two zipper options that can help little fingers learn how to zip and unzip while they use their magnets:

Mama's Soft Baby Book: Embroidered Animals

Happy birthday to SourPatch! He's the mighty age of one, officially. It's actually kind of emotional, so let's not talk about it too much. I do want to thank everyone for being so generous! He has been showered with clothes, toys, and books galore, and I understand more of them are on his way.

It can't help but remind me of the presents he received for his real birthday. I had three amazing showers; one in Texas, one in Utah, and one in California. How lucky can a girl get?? The Texas bash was thrown by none other than the marvelous Melanie, and it was pretty much a perfect affair.

I admit that in the midst of the beautiful decor, delicious food, and delightful games, the presents all blurred together in a marvelous whir, in particular those from my mother, I'm sad to say. She gave me so many, and I didn't have time to really parse through and appreciate each item.

Flash forward several months, and SourPatch is now a crawling ball of energy. I had a few friends (and their own babies) over, when one of them noticed a beautiful soft book that he loved to play with. They ooh'd and ah'd over this hand-stitched, felt-and-floss wonder and asked where I had gotten it.

Oh dear. To my shame, I couldn't recall for certain where it had come from, but a little voice in the back of my mind spoke the truth: this bore the mark of my mother.

Which, if you know her at all (or even quickly browse the posts under her "Marilyn" label), means that it's beautifully sewn and well put together. I quickly called her up to both verify that this was in fact her handiwork and to thank her profusely for such a personal gift. This present took time and talent, and SourPatch loves it.

Which is impressive, because he has pretty much loved it for a year now and not outgrown it. It is just the right size, it's colorful, and it has great textures. But a picture is worth a thousand words:

Here's the cover! I simply call this "The Penguin Book" when talking to SourPatch. It's about a 7 inch square, and has been through the wash a few times by now and held up marvelously (I believe all baby items should be easily washable? Agreed?). He loves touching the buttons and little penguin feet (which aren't sewn down and flap freely).

Inside are eight pages of animal joy. Mum embroidered each animal and its name onto the page in happy colors.

The monkey is his favorite page; he stops each time to touch its face. Even at a just few months old, Patches loved to flip though the book and feel the textures of the animals and the words. Now, when we read it, we talk about the sounds the animals make or the colors on the page.

So, mum, this is a year late, but thank you again for the book! It's one of the most well-used toys of the past 365 days, and we will continue to love it in the days to come. And for all ye similarly talented sewers and embroiderers, this makes an excellent gift.

Quiet Book Page: Baseball Glove

So it should be obvious by now that our mother is a very gifted seamstress. I'm not sure I fully realized how gifted she is while I was growing up; I just figured all moms made their own drapes, recovered couches, altered formals, sewed dresses, and crafted amazing Halloween costumes. It was just part of the mom territory.

Imagine my chagrin to realize that though I've been a mother six whole months, those powers haven't distilled upon me. I don't completely understand that delay, but while I'm waiting, I thought that now is a good time to use my so-so sewing skills to make things for SourPatch. He doesn't seem fixated on perfection and will willingly wear or use whatever I make him.

I also have found that sewing is ridiculously expensive. Do you know those giant cutting mats at JoAnns cost fifty bucks?!? Are you serious? Fifty dollars for a sheet of green plastic? Yeah right. I'll see what Walmart's costs... and I shouldn't complain! Our family's good friend Carmen is a saint and gave me a sewing machine, so there's one giant expense down. Yet I'm trying to be frugal.

So, I wanted an inexpensive project specifically for SourPatch that will help improve my sewing and can be done in funny snippets of time in-between naps. Thus, the Great Quiet Book Challenge was born...

The Great Quiet Book Challenge

Okay, so basically it's my sisters and me combining forces to create awesome quiet books for our kids. Since Delys already made some pages for Elin a long time ago, we used those pages as the basis for our books:

The Guidelines:

• All pages should be 11"x 12" on basic muslin
• Make 3 copies of each page to be exchanged with each other at a future date

And... those are really the only guidelines we have. Have you seen all the cute ideas on the internet? There are so many really neat books, tutorials, etc. It's fun to also attempt to design your own, too, so when I saw all the "put your hand in the glove" pages, I decided to make it a baseball glove instead! A quick google search revealed a few similar pages out there, but it's kind of hard to make a baseball mitt look adorable, si? Still, I went for it, and here's how it turned out:

Pretty cute, right? And super economical: the muslin was 40% off $2 a yard (thank you, JoAnns!), the felt was, what,  $0.30ish a sheet at Walmart, and I just used odd thread/string I had on hand.

To make the baseball stiff, I dipped it in a half water, half Elmers School Glue solution. It worked really well, actually (though probably makes it toxic to chew... hmm.) I know you can buy stiff, stick-on felt sheets, but they're a lot more expensive and don't have as many color options. Here's a picture of some blue felt I stiffened, too.

I'm really excited about the baseball display case! I cut out a square of the plastic packaging from SourPatch's "Charlie Chomp Chomp" crocodile toy and sewed it right on, easy as pie (half thinking I was going to break the needle, mind... glad it worked!) It already had this nifty snap on it, too.

I did buy a package of iron-on transfer paper from amazon for $7. I figure I can use it for lots of quiet book pages (and other projects!) I know some moms are really legit and needle-point on the words in their quiet books. I'm confident that this method looks a lot neater and cuter than my hand sewing.

So there you have it! The first page of the Great Quiet Book Challenge. I'm excited to see the rest of the pages to come!