Felt Quiet Books

So last Fall Becky put together a group of friends and family to work on Quiet Books together. We each were assigned 1 page to do 15 times. Then we would all swap and wind up with 15 different pages, a complete Quiet Book! I have always wanted to do a Quiet Book but felt a little overwhelmed. I liked the idea of only collecting enough stuff to do 1 page several times. I was excited to get started.

After we swapped and got our pages, I decided to do a few extra pages on my own so I would have enough pages for 2 quiet books. Then each of my girls could have one and they would both be different. I had so much fun with this project. I loved the creative freedom I felt working on this book. I didn't a pattern I was stressed about messing up and felt is relatively inexpensive so if I cut something wrong, it wasn't the end of the world. I had fun creating some cute pages I knew my girls would love. I found this to be such a fun relaxing sewing project and I was able to get creative and try some fun new things.  It was a great project and I would definitely do it again! 

For our pages, we used a dark grey felt, and cut it into 10 by 11 squares. Then we got to work making our pages. After we swapped and I had the pages for my book. I did a few extra pages on my own. Then I sewed the pages together (wrong sides together so you can turn the pages of your book). Then we used grommets to make sturdy holes for our book. This is where we ran into trouble. I had to take my crop-a-dile to punch the holes through the layers of felt first, then I formed the grommets in the holes. Then I made my covers for the books out of left over fabric. In hind sight I wish I had added some sort of stiffener to the fabric so it's not so floppy, but they are still pretty cute.

Here is the cover I made. I made it a little larger then the pages. I added some lace, burlap and ric rac for a fun border. Then I took some old embroidery thread and stitched their names onto the cover. I left the fabric edges raw, because I kinda like that shabby look. Then I stitched 2 fabric pieces together. Lastly, I did the grommets and it's done! I also did a back cover that was just plain. 

For Adelynn's book I gave her a few harder activities since she's older. I found that the more there is for her to do, the more she plays with the page. 

Here is a fun zebra page where she can braid the tail and tie a bow.

This is a fun caterpillar page and each of the pieces is attached with velcro. I also added a little butterfly in the cocoon since we had been learning about them in preschool. 

This is the family tree page that I made 15 times. I used burlap for the tree trunk and then cut up a page protector to make little pockets to put in family pictures. I then covered the picture pocket with a little lift-the-flap heart. They can lift the hearts and see pictures of their family. 

This is a puzzle page. I made the dinosaur puzzle as one of my extra pages. I thought it was such a fun idea, but the 9 piece puzzle is a little hard. Once the pieces are mixed up it's really hard to tell what piece goes where.

This is a cool clock page, where they can practice telling time.

I sewed a pocket on to the page to hold all the puzzle pieces. 

This is a tie your shoe page. My daughter needs more practice on this one.

This is a orange tree page where kids can practice doing buttons. I also added a little burlap pocket to hold the pieces once they are off.  (I found pockets to be helpful or else pieces are everywhere.)

This was a darling page I saw on a blog and couldn't help but doing myself. It was the most time consuming page I did. This page also broke my sewing machine. I thought I could sew through sticky back Velcro and you CAN NOT!! Make sure you get the velcro specifically for sewing. I got my machine fixed and was back up and running in a few weeks. 

This is my Chica Chica Boom Boom page. The tree is covered with velro where you can stick on the letters and the boat is a large pocket where the letters can also be stored. They love this page!

This is another puzzle page that I made. The butterfly is a little easier for her to do.

This is a amazing weather page. There are little spots on the page where you can velcro on and off lots of different weather shapes. There is a sun, clouds, stars, rain drops and lightning. The house is a pocket to hold all the stuff. 

This is one of my daughters favorite pages. She loves to color and will color little notes for people. 

Here is the next one for my younger daughter. 

I made this little purse page and thought it would be fun to have little felt lip stick and keys to put inside it for her to play pretend.

This is another puzzle page I made. It's a zebra if you can't tell. These puzzles were actually a lot of fun to make. They love this one because it's only 3 pieces and easy to put together.

This is a weaving page. Mckenzie can't quiet figure out how to weave yet, but she tries. 

This page ROCKS and was made my the super talented Becky. She made both of these pages 15 times!!! You can velcro on and off a million different accessories and the pocket and clothes line hold them all. 

I had an extra family tree so I put on in both my girls books. My girls LOVE pictures, so this way they both have some to look at.

This is a really fun barn page with little finger puppets. My girls love to put them on and play with them. A good friend did this page and we found a cool template here. 

This is a fun street sign page. You can snap the pieces on and off.

So to go with the street sign, I had to do a little neighborhood page. I saw this idea here.

I made this fun numbers page. Under each flap is the corresponding amount of buttons.

This is a fun ballon button page.

This is a great zipper page. You can put little snack and stuff inside this fun pocket!

This quiet book project was a lot of fun and my girls have had a lot of fun playing with it. I originally thought I could stuff this baby in a diaper bag or haul it to church, but it's a little large and isn't super easy to haul around. I do keep it accessible where they can grab it and play with it during quiet time which they do often. We've also taken these on a road trips and it works well for something to do on a long drive. It was a really fun project and I have a lot of ideas for another one.

Well I hope we've inspired you to make your own quiet book, or get a group and swap pages like we did. This is a great beginner sewing project. Happy sewing!!