English Smocking

English smocking - matching blouses and a bubble suit for three little girls. 

The one on the left is in the smocking stage the one on the right needs the neck binding, bubble suit in the middle is finished.

When we started this project it was for my little granddaughters to use in learning to sit still in church.  It appears there are other times the Quiet Book has come in handy - at the doctor's office, during preschool homeschool, on Sunday afternoon when others in the family are trying to catch a nap. Here's the next few pages. . .

Shape matching with a cat and dog theme

Chef with bowl of spaghetti - this is not my own pattern - borrowed from another.

Large snap and the great fun of putting in and taking out

Baby Moses hidden in the rushes - I should have made the baby removable but my daughter said the girls like this page a lot so maybe it's OK

This is my own design - a little more advanced skill page - lots of snaps - the magnets with stars do have ribbons. I have mentioned before we had stopped putting ribbons on the objects because of the tangle problem. But I did use ribbons here, only 2" long - the stars stay close and there's not much tangle.

Couple more pages to Quiet Book

The little girls I am making these books for are 3 and 4 years old.  Flap pages where objects are hidden underneath are appropriate. Here's my new pages. . .

Animals hidden under shapes

Miss bunny can go inside her house and shut the door

Little dog on a chain, can go inside his house and his bone can tuck inside his bowl.

I make sure anytime I use something that could present a danger to the child i.e. the charm on the collar - I sew it on triple threaded and secure it firmly. Little fingers will try to get any item off, so care must be taken.

This is one of my favorite pages - my own design. We made the same design from construction paper for my preschool Sunday school class. We used a brad for the stone to pivot on. Grave clothes are a piece of white ribbon twisted and sewn into place. The stone "rolls" away with a shelf to sit in and a button to pivot on.

More Quiet Book pages

I added to the pages for the Quiet Book - some of these ideas are found on other sites for quiet books and some I came up with myself . . .

Flap page - cat has buttons on legs - they move back and forth.

Little owl can tuck into tree trunk flap reveals small bird on nest

Originally my daughter wanted ribbons on all the loose pieces so nothing would drop away and be lost  but as the children played with these pages the ribbons wrapped around each other creating knots and causing frustration. She ended up cutting off the ribbons. I used magnets sewn under socks for matching. The last two ideas came from http://www.imagineourlife.com/quiet-book-patterns/

This is my own design - the bugs are buttons with black flocking - this page caused another "Hi!" from the little one as she turned over the flap and found a bug underneath for the first time.

Flap door with a loop and button closure. The top of the boat has a shelf the animals and Noah can sit down in. Idea from here: sewingbelle.blogspot.com/2010/02/quiet-book_22.html

Large snaps and flap birdhouse

Cover for Quiet Book

I made three covers so each little girl could have her own and the pages are interchangeable so their mom can fill each one with different activities each time.

I attached a magnetic closure - you can purchase these at Walmart or a fabric store - they are pretty easy to put on - just follow package instructions.

The third one is green background - same design.

The first few of many busy book pages to come . . .

I have been working up a storm on a fabric art project! Making a quiet book for my granddaughters. Another person has very nicely described a quiet book as: 

"a set of fabric activity pages bound together with the intent of instilling calmness and restful playtime for babies and toddlers in the event of the numberless boring adult occasions that require a hushed atmosphere." 

Such an important thing to teach - so many people today don't  have respect for another when they are speaking. Learning to be quiet and listen is one of those golden apples in a silver bowl!

I am making two books at the same time - the pages will be interchangeable.

                                       
                                                                Counting beads - all the beads were sewed on using a triple thread - wanted those to be strongly attached - no fear of little fingers getting them off and eating them.

After my granddaughters began using these pages it became necessary to cut the ribbons off the pieces - it was a great idea for not losing pieces but the frustration of tangled ribbons outweighed the benefit.

These two pages are for fruit snacks, one for each little pocket - we thought the activity for the girls of reaching their little fingers into each tiny pocket would be a time filler but the fruit snacks tended to stick inside causing frustration - I did line the pockets with plastic cut from a freezer weight zip lock bag - M & M's might work.

The little two year old was so surprised to see a little man inside the large fish she said very quietly "Hi!"

Buttoning

Buckling and snapping (under the bone)

Flap page

Finger Puppets

Like my blog title says I am an illustrator - my work can be seen at www.monicaminto.com. This is a slight deviation from my illustration work but I actually love working with a needle and thread almost as much as with a pen and ink. My two little granddaughters ages 3 and 2 are learning to sit quietly in church and there is another waiting in the wings who is age 3 months, so my daughter has been talking about needing a Quiet Book. I did a few hours of looking around online and found these are quite popular. There are so many ideas out there, ranging from simple fast done projects to intricately pieced and interactive pages. I plan to do most of my book using hand sewing and I will cite the placed I have used for my ideas to give them credit. When I come up with an original idea I may post free patterns to help anyone else making a quiet book.

I am looking forward to this project :)

I finished the first two pages except the grommets for the rings to go through. These are based on an idea my daughter is using already of a tiny notebook with one small sheet of simple stickers and one crayon. To prevent the crayon from getting away I hot glued the ribbon to the crayon and sewed the other end to the edge of the pocket. My daughter wanted to attach as many pieces with this method as possible so she doesn't have to continually pick up fallen things during the sermon.

The purpose of the book is to keep the child quiet when very young and learning to have the discipline of sitting still and listening.  So I am going to try not to have pages that tend to very involved imaginative play but simple activities to promote sitting still. I also will probably use Bible themes for some of the pages.

I plan to make many different pages. My daughter will keep them in a removable cover (which I will make after I have a few pages finished) when getting ready for Sunday church she will pick a few pages for each child, this way one book will work for several children at the same time. I may design smaller covers for each child or some way to carry them without pieces falling out.

So the fun begins. . .more to come!

sites where some of my ideas came from

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2012/06/sweet-flowers-quiet-book.html

 http://thedagenaisdaily.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/my-first-quiet-book-is-finished/ 

http://www.imagineourlife.com/2012/03/24/sandcastle-quiet-book-page/