Quiet Book Page 18: Black and White Weave

This is the VERY LAST page of Owen's Quiet Book!! It was a "save the easiest for last" kind of page and I love it. 

Page 18: Weave

Teaches: Contrast, how to weave

My inspiration for this page came from my friends quiet book and from here. In the link, she made it so the weave is a tower, but for mine, I kept it super simple with a rectangle. 

Here is how my weave page turned out:

All I did for this page was cut up two different pieces of felt. The black I cut in strips the long way and the white I cut in strips the short way. I then placed and sewed the black strips along the top and placed and sewed the white strips along the left side. 

The strips can be un-woven and re-woven. Make this page and give it a try! It is actually a little trickier than I expected! Have fun with it. 

~K.A.N.

Quiet Book Pages 6 and 7: Barn and Grassy Hill

As I was making the quiet book, these pages were my favorite of all the ones I had made. They turned out so cute and didn't take a ton of time!

Pages 6 and 7: Barn and Grassy Hill

Teaches: Animals, imaginative play, using finger puppets

My inspiration and pattern for these pages came from here. It was SO nice having a template for everything rather than having to draw it out myself. It made it go a lot faster, and I love how it turned out!

I just printed off her template, cut out the pieces and sewed everything together! The whole barn page is machine stitched on. 

As is the grassy hill page. I used one whole piece of green felt for this page and cut it to make pocket for the animals to go in. 

The barn doors stay closed via velcro.

And there are the finger puppet animals!! Tucked nicely into their little pocket.

I just love these little animals. They were all hand stitched together, then the eyes were added using puffy paint. 

Here is the empty barn.

And the animals playing on the hill. 

Super fun and super cute! Thanks Jocelyn for the awesome template!

~K.A.N.

Quiet Book Pages 2 and 3: Traffic Light and Road

These pages were fun to make! I did a mix of hand stitching and machine stitching and wouldn't change a thing about them. 

Pages 2 and 3: Traffic Light and Road

Teaches: Traffic light and meaning, imaginative play, velcro

My inspiration for this page came from here.

Her pages looked great, so I wanted mine to look just like hers. This is how mine turned out: 

As with the shapes page, I made sketches of both of these pages which I then used as a pattern. 

For the traffic light page, I cut out the black and one layer of felt for a red, yellow, and green circle. I machine stitched those onto the black, then added a square of velcro. The black felt piece was then machine stitched onto the page. I then cut two layers of felt of each color, machine stitched them together, trimmed, and added the other side of a square of velcro. 

The rhyme was written in sharpie on the same thick interfacing I used on the shapes page. (It goes to the same tune as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

The road page was mostly hand stitched using a blanket stitch. I really love how it turned out! 

The red block at the top is a "garage" for the little car I made! It is wider on one end, then stitched down in straight lines to allow room for the car to go in. 

I also attached a ribbon to the car and the back of the garage so the car doesn't get lost!

Once again, here are the pages together! If you have questions, just leave a comment and I will do my best to answer them!

~K.A.N.

Quiet Book Page 1: Shapes

This first page took me much longer than it should have to complete. It was the combination of getting started and not knowing exactly how I wanted to do this page that made it so time consuming. With that in mind, my first suggestion for each page is to plan exactly what you want before you do anything. 

Page 1: Shapes

Teaches: Snaps, Shapes, Colors

My inspiration for this page came from the shapes page in Sabrina's quiet book off of The Quiet Book Blog. 

I love how perfect all of Sabrina's pages look. The matching colors, the amazing stitching, everything! Her shapes page was my favorite that I found, so I decided to copy it to the best of my ability. 

Here is what I came up with: 

For all of my pages, I first make a general sketch of what the page would look like on letter size paper (8.5 inches by 11 inches). For these shapes, I traced Owen's shape blocks because they were just the size I needed. I then decided on the colors for each of the shapes. I cut two layers of felt and one layer of a coordinating cotton for each shape.

I machine stitched the two layers of felt together, trimmed the edges, and then added a snap to the center. 

I used Heat N' Bond Lite for the cotton shapes attached to the pages. I ironed the first side on, added the snap, then ironed it to the page. I then zig-zag stitched around the outside to keep it in place. 

I used a very thick interfacing and sharpie to write the names of the shapes. I cut them to size, wrote the shape names, and then machine stitched around the edges. 

Here is pictured how the shapes snap on to their matching cotton shape. 

And a closer picture of the outer stitching:

Below is the circle. Two layers of blue felt machine stitched together with a snap applied to both layers. My recommendation here is to trim to what you have sewn. Even if your stitching isn't perfect, the trimming will make that shape look great!

Here are four extra shapes. This was my first attempt at what I wanted to do. I cut out one layer and applied the snaps. They look pretty but are way too flimsy. 

No worries though, because they just get tucked right in to that nice little pocket at the bottom of the page as extras!

Once again, here is the page overall. Although it is not quite as pretty as Sabrina's, I love how it turned out!!

~K.A.N.

Easter 2014

Easter was forever ago, I realize that, but I did a lot of sewing for it and thought I would write a blog post about all the outfits!

First is an idea I saw on pinterest! It was a baby girl outfit there, but I decided it was definitely able to be made into a boy version as well, so I went for it! Owen was not in the mood for taking pictures, so this is the best I got. I love how it turned out though!! 

One of my very best friends is also super crafty (see her blog here) and we decided to make shirts for each other's little guys. I used felt and puffy paint for mine and she used vinyl for hers! Looks professional right? Owen sure liked it! 

For Easter Sunday, I knew I wanted to have matching outfits for the three of us. I decided to make myself a skirt first. I didn't have any fabric I liked, so using plain white and a white and light pink plaid, I crafted some chevron fabric to use. I then used this tutorial to make my skirt. I don't have a picture of just my skirt, but it turned out cute. I loved having pockets!! If you want to know how to make the chevron, let me know and I will do a post about that. 

For Owen's outfit, I made a cute little vest with a matching bowtie. He looked adorable of course. For the vest, I drafted a pattern from a vest that he currently fit and it worked like a charm. I then added 3 buttons with button holes. 

Nathan already had a pink tie to match us, so he wore that. I loved having matching outfits! A friend of ours took some quick pictures for us and they turned out perfect. 

Happy Easter!! 

~K.A.N.