Mady's Quiet Book

Done, Done, Done!



Do you hear that sound? That "Awwww" of angels singing? That's because it is a special day. This is the day (and the post!) I never thought would come! It took 4 months, but I have officially (finally!) finished the quiet book. I'm so proud of myself for pushing through, even when things weren't working and getting it done and actually finishing it before Christmas (because who are we kidding? If it wasn't done before Christmas it never would have been finished).

I went to my parent's house last weekend and my mom helped me measure and cut the fabric for the cover. Then I came home and cut the felt letters and sewed them on. This proved to be tricky as the striped fabric didn't have straight-dyed stripes. That totally messes with you sewing straight lines, let me tell you.

I decided to zig-zag around each letter to fasten it down better and though I'm very new at the whole zig-zag thing, I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.



I had originally planned to make the fastener to close the book be three buttons on the front page and then a loop of elastic on the "tab" so that no matter how big or small the book was (if I took out pages etc) then there would be a button onto which it could fit. However, my wording ended up being bigger than I thought and I didn't have to space for three buttons in a horizontal line. So then I thought I could do it the other way with the buttons on the tab, but then there was no way to put the elastic through the bias binding without it being weird. So then my next plan was a single button on the cover and three button holes on the tab. The first button hole I made, turned into a mess (I wish I knew what causes this problem so that I could fix it!). And out of frustration I declared that I would be doing a simple snap. And I'm glad I stuck with that.



The cover itself has quilt batting inside to make it a bit more durable and a bit more soft. To make the "binding" part of it, I used belting and stitched little "channels" for the rings to go through. The belting then comes around and was inserted into a tube of fabric that I made to cover it and then stitched down to make a handle. If you want clearer instructions on how to do that send me an email, comment or if you know me personally give me a call and I'll walk you through it.



Lastly I put bias tape around the edges to finish it off nicely and to save me the whole "fold this under a 1/4 inch" thing. I'm into simple, people!

The cover as a project would have intimidated me had I looked at it and decided that was what I had to do, but doing each part step by step made it quite simple. Kind of makes me think I really could take on a harder project. Now I just need to decide what. Any ideas?


Below is a picture list of all the pages and the skill they teach as well as a link to the post where I explain them a bit more. Of course, if I didn't explain something and you want more detail, please let me know and I will further clarify.

If you're wanting to make a quiet book, I recommend doing 10-15 pages (not 26 like me). And check out this site for some great ideas and links to other blogs with quiet books. I used some of her templates and ideas for some of the pages you see here.





(See? I wasn't kidding, the thing is huge!)

Well I'm going to go wrap it now before a certain someone finds it!




1. Giant Pocket (holds extra dress up clothes and whatever other treasures she wants)
Skill Learned: Buttoning



2. & 3. Potato Head and Pocket/Clothesline
Skill learned: Clothes pinning, Creative/Imaginative Play, Face Structure


4. Teddy bear
Skill learned: Bow Tying


5. Picnic Setting
Skill learned: Doing up a buckle, table place settings



6. & 7. Count the buttons
Skill learned: Counting, patterns


8. Hair
Skill learned: Using barretts, hair elastic, clips, braiding etc.


9. Apple Tree
Skill learned: Hooking, unhooking


10. Ladybug
Skill learned: zipper, snaps


11.Counting Beads (though 2 pages are shown, I only ended up putting one in the book)
Skill learned: Counting



12. & 13 Oven & Cupcakes
Skill learned: Imaginative play


14. Shoe
Skill learned: Shoe lacing/tying


15. Matching Shapes
Skill learned: Matching colours and shapes


16. Weaving
Skill learned: Weaving


17. Tic Tac Toe
Skill learned: Logic



18. & 19. Get Dressed
Skill learned: Imaginative play, outfit coordinating (ha! here's hoping)


20. Yo-yo
Skill learned: Up/down


21. Puzzle
Skill learned: Logic, patience (these are hard!)


22. Ice Cream Cone
Skill learned: Sizes (small medium, large)


23. Clock
Skill learned: Time telling (analog/digital conversion)


24. Telephone
Skill learned: Imaginative Play, how to make a call


25. Button Flowers
Skill Learned: Buttoning, colour matching


26. Traffic Light
Skill learned: Colour recognition, Traffic control meanings