I didn't want to use felt because I don't think it wears really well over time. I also have a lot of cotton fabric so I just used my stash. I bought 3 yrds Peltex 70 for my pages and a yard of thick double sided adhesive interfacing for a lot of my pieces. (I couldn't find any information but I think it was something about 73?) Heat'n'Bond is a must, and lots of it. I used a lot of thread, like I bought at least 8 spools of different colors, some I didn't use up completely but I did go through several spools of white and black because I "bound" the edges of my pages. I used velcro and buttons for most of my fasteners and both large and small eyelets. I bought a bunch of buttons because I didn't have any fun ones. I used ink-jet transfer pages for both white and colored material for all my lettering. I only bought one piece of fabric for this project and I didn't really need too. I did get a few beads for the number page as well.
This was not an inexpensive project. I would say if you are only thinking of making one to save on cost, spend the money and get a nice one because it takes a lot of time and a lot of money. It took me at least one full day to finish a page not including all the research and development ideas. I did mostly machine applique and basically just hand sewed the buttons.
Well, here are the pages:
Do You Want to Build a Snowman?
Pretty straight forward but it was difficult to do the applique on the accessories as they were small. I sewed Velcro onto really small buttons for the buttons on his chest. The arms are wired twine and then I wrapped the bottoms in duct tape and made a little pocket for them on the torso.
Simple Math
This page is pretty standard but I wanted Jonathan and Charlotte to be able to use this to practice Math Facts next Fall. We have two sets of numbers from 1-20 in the pouch as well as a plus and minus sign. I glued embroidery floss on the back of the page after threading it through the eyelets with beads on it to create my "abacus". All the numbers were made using the transfer sheets.
Tie Your Shoe
Just a real shoelace for them to practice tying. I decided to orient them this way to simulate them tying their own shoes.
Carve Your Jack'O Lantern
The pumpkin is a pouch for holding the face pieces. It is made of the Peltex and I used the double sided adhesive interfacing for the pieces. I had considered doing a page for each holiday and decided against it. You could make an entire quiet book just about holidays. The shapes are fastened with Velcro.
Animal Shapes
This was one of my favorite Pinterest finds. I made up the templates from a book I'd seen for purchase on Etsy and I think it turned out well.
Tic Tac Toe
What you see is what you get. There are two Velcro strips on the back for keeping the pieces when not playing.
Cupcakes by Numbers
This page is by far my favorite. I love the different colors and details. There is a symbolic representation, the word and the visual representation of each number. Just pull them all out of their wrapper and match them up.
Let's go Fly a Kite
This page is about patterns. You use the colored shapes to make patterns on the kite strings. I should have left more room under the buttons. Charlotte helped me sew on the buttons on this page.
What time is it?
I'm really proud of how well this page came together. This was another Pinterest find that just worked, once I got the numbers figured out. The hands can move to whatever time you want. The minutes underneath the petals can help the kids visually learn the minute correlation to the clock face in a way that hopefully won't make them dependent on it.
Buckle it up, Snap it and zip it
This is just some dexterity skills. I actually really proud of my treasure map, the pieces are simple but tiny. That kind of applique is hard. A friend gave me the mirror paper so adding a snap to that was perfect.
Paint with Color
This one I goofed on a little bit but that's ok. I meant to have the color names on the palette not on the color pieces and the point would have been to match the color pieces in the crayon pockets with the color name on the palette. Now you just match the blob to the crayons. A little easier but hey, the kids don't care and they still learn something, right?
Updo anyone?
My girls love this page, go figure. I glued the yarn on instead of sewing it. I think it will stay on better. The hairpieces are clipped onto a ribbon I glued and sewed into the borders.
Meet, Alphabet, the Catapillar
I used the transfer sheets here to put the lower case letters under the removable upper case letter pieces. I'm hoping it will help the kids better learn to identify upper and lower case versions of the letters. I'm hoping it also helps with b vs d and p vs q confusions.
2-player Blokus-style Game
I modeled this after a favorite game of our family. I wanted to kids to be able to interact a bit with each other, especially Hannnah and Jonathan. Charlotte and Jonathan tried this out the other day and the size worked better than I had anticipated. The Velcro on the back makes these one directional but it still works nicely. This is even something Hyrum and I could use.
My mother-in-law, a long time ago offered to make me a quiet book page. I am really particular so I asked if she would be willing to make me a cover instead and she did. She has made it to fit a three ring binder. You simply slip the covers into pockets and then zip the whole thing shut keeping it together and relatively compact. Finding a binder to fit the cover was tricky but I finally found one. I made 15 pages so there is a lot of bulk here, but it fits!! I used large eyelets to create the holes for the pages.
I love the pockets she put on the inside and the exterior fabric fits so well.
In addition to the pages, I made three marble mazes. I placed a small glass stone inside two pieces of material and then sewed a maze on it. It is completely self contained and no marble to lose. Yes, another Pinterest find. There are great tutorials online. These came together in about 5-7 minutes each.
I also used my scrap materials to make a memory game. This can all fit into the quiet book binder, though I might make another bag for things like the memory game and mazes along with some crayons, a coloring book, and a few other activities.
It all turned out so well and I am so relieved it is done. I looked at my list of things to accomplish in the coming months and a huge burden lifted as I realized everything else is pretty simple compared to this project.
