Levi's Quiet Book

Levi's Quiet Book

I've wanted to make a Quiet Book for Levi, my grandson for a while now.  I've looked at different blogs, Pinterest, etsy, etc... and ruminated about it.

So, I began with a flourish.  I ran to my local Hobby Lobby, bought up a bunch of felt and other knick-knacks to apply and ran home without the least amount of planning.

So, I would first recommend that you plan out your pages.  That will save you a lot of money and wear and tear on your nerves.

My first suggestion is to set aside all the pages of felt you'll need for each individual page in your quiet book.  I didn't do that and ended up having to splice pieces of felt together to make pages... which isn't all bad, since you can have grass and sky, etc.  

I got one large piece of felt for the cover and cut it two pages wide and a little larger all the way around to cover the pages. One long piece of grosgrain ribbon for the handle, and I was lucky enough to find letter, numbers and balls already cut and ready to use.  I also used those big round clips that you can find in any Office Depot to gather the pages together.  I put the holes the same distance apart as a page of notebook paper, in case we ever wanted to put the pages in a notebook instead.

I started out sewing all the pieces of  felt and doing a blanket stitch on all the edges.  Then, I found one website where the lady said she just glued them together with hot glue, so I started doing that instead and found it to be wonderful!  Above is the "tie it shoe".  Pick the felt of your choice for the sneaker (don't you love this zebra print?) and then adhere all the pieces together with hot glue. I then glued the shoe string onto the shoe, until it came to the section where it needed to be tied.  My grandson is too little to do this right now, but I think he'll enjoy it in the future.

I love this page.  The "hungry alligator".  I couldn't find a short white zipper, so I got this black one instead.  I figure alligators don't go to the dentist, so black teeth are okay.  I cut out the alligator to fit the zipper.  I cut out fishies, glued them together and glued sequin eyes on them.  Squiggle some hot glue on each side and let dry, them squiggle hot glue on the top of the page and let dry.  The  dried hot glue will stick to itself... MUCH BETTER THAN VELCRO DOES!!!

The above page is one I was really looking forward to making.  I took a page and turned it sideways so that it would be longer than the regular page is wide.  I cut a hole in it ... like a fishing hole and gathered the top together to glue the fishing hole onto the main page.  I put magnets onto the mouths of the fishies and put a larger magnet onto the end of the fishing pole.  I found the fishing pole in the section at Hobby Lobby that has miniatures for doll houses.  I put a piece of velcro at the top of the page to store the fishing pole.

These two pages are kinda fun, too.  I put a little boy on one page and on the next page I have different outfits he can wear.  He can even have red hair, black hair, brown hair or blond hair.  A rain cloud and umbrella for a rainy day and a sun and kite for a sunny day. And, of course, lots of balls.

You have to have an alphabet page.  I outlined each letter on the main page and then put squiggles of hot glue within the outline.  Let it dry.  Squiggle hot glue onto the back of each letter and let dry.  Remember, the dried hot glue sticks to itself really well without pulling the felt apart.  That's what I've found with the pages that I used velcro.  It sticks too well, and when you go to pull the piece up, it pulls at the felt. I'm sure it will tear at some point in time, but I hope little Levi gets to enjoy it a bunch before then.

As well as an alphabet page, you have to have a counting page. So, on one side, I have the numbers (you can find them already pre-cut), and on the other side I put down lengths of shoe strings that I had cut, singed the ends so that they wouldn't ravel, and then put the beads on.  I then sewed each end really well so that they wouldn't come off.  I wouldn't want my little one to choke on those beads.

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed!  Who doesn't love this nursery rhyme?  The page I took this from was absolutely beautifully done.  It was hand-stitched and absolutely gorgeous.  I hot-glued mine at a fraction of the time.  After all, it's a two-year-old who is going to be playing with this.  This is one of the pages that I had to splice together because I had cut all the whole pages apart.  The yellow comforter is only glued on the sides and bottom, so that the monkeys can be tucked up for the night.

Shapes and colors.  This is one of the two pages that I hand-sewed until I came upon the one crafter's suggestion to just hot glue everything.  

A snowman!  The snowman has a little basket with a change of hat, scarf and mittens.

Here's pix of the clips that hold the pages and cover together.

So, my biggest suggestions are:

1.  Hot glue everything!

2.  Before putting the pages together, mark where you want to put the holes, and then bring out your sewing machine and button hole those places.  I glued the pages together first and then tried to button hole them, and the dried hot glue gunked up my sewing machine needle.

3.  Instead of using velcro, squiggle hot glue on the sides you want to stick together and let them dry.  Dried hot glue sticks very well, but releases well, too.

Biggest suggestion of all:  HAVE FUN !!!!