A Pony Pal's Quiet Book - Sneak Peek

Our community has been sheltering in place for three weeks now due to COVID-19, the coronavirus. It's been a good time to get some work done on our youngest granddaughter's quiet book. I make one for every grandchild's first birthday and Melissa will turn one on June 19. (I made them for my kids' first birthdays, too; this is my twenty-first book.)

My horse room doubles as my sewing room, and I need a lot of working space for a quiet book. I spread out on my craft table and onto my desk.

Those white storage chests under my desk hold more sewing supplies. Thread and bobbins are on the desk so I can find them easily - each page necessitates multiple changes of thread. (That is Pepper sprawled and sound asleep in her dog bed.)

Kyle, Ashley, and their family live in Florida, and when I asked them what they wanted to see in Melissa's book, he suggested that I make it "sunny themed." Braden, Addie, Corinne, and Whitney went one better. They laid their quiet books out in front of Melissa so that she could choose her own pages!

And Corinne likes her own book so much that she asked me to make hers again for Melissa. 

Taking their ideas into account, I began flipping through my pattern books and planning the pages. I try to have little tweaks and nods to family members in a quiet book, and this page is a pretty big nod to me. 

 The ears and forelock are not stitched down and very tactile. 

And, you can feed the horse carrots! In another nod to a family member, Melissa's Aunt Jessica, a dental hygienist, is sending me a baby toothbrush so that you can brush the horse's teeth, too! I drew this pattern so it is uniquely Melissa's.(I got the idea from an opened mouth giraffe photo I saw online.)

 I made this vibrantly colored fish using color changing sequin fabric. I could play with it all day.

This is another pattern that I designed and drew up myself. (I am still picking up sequins from the carpet after cutting the fish out!)

 This is a swimsuit cover-up that can be buttoned and unbuttoned. 

The yellow apples are a tweak to my parents' apple orchard. When they were young, Kyle and our kids loved visiting the orchard. My dad would hitch up a wagon to the tractor and give them rides up and down the rows of trees. And since my favorite apple is the Yellow Delicious, the fabric also a little bit of a reference to me, too.

 An old favorite is also being included at the family's request - the dress up page. The doll isn't done, but her dresses are. The horseshoes will make them think of me, and Kyle will smile at the orange dress - he's a big fan of the University of Illinois (where he grew up) and its colors are orange and blue.

Four pages are done and ready to stitch into the quiet book's pages, and the other eight are in various stages of completion. My goal is to finish the quiet book by the end of this month.

We were going to head down to Florida the first week in May, but those plans have been nixed due to COVID-19. I don't know when I will give it to Melissa now; I may even have to mail it instead of getting to see her open it in person.