The Quiet Book - Nearly Finished

After two weeks of lack of inspiration (and garage cleaning), the last three pages are underway. 

The ninth page was completed during that two weeks - I was just waiting for the bee appliqués to arrive. I stitched them down and drew their little buzzy flight paths.

I am designing many of the pages to reflect the JCs^2 childhood love of The Wiggles and that has been a real challenge for me. 

Modifying designs and pages that I created and drew myself for earlier quiet books has been helpful. 

This dinosaur page features in several quiet books and I decided to modify it into the Wiggles dinosaur, Dorothy.

I ran into a problem right away.

Her teeth are located at the very base of her face, not midway. (I.e. it's like she has no chin or bottom jaw.)

To cover the zipper (which has to be very low on Dorothy's face), the teeth have to be large enough to hide it.

If I put the zipper too low, there will be too much stress on the smaller portion of her jaw and a big chance that the fabric might tear from little fingers pulling on that zipper.

I'm still thinking about how to solve this dilemma.

I needed a small Wiggles Jeff doll for another page.

Believe it or not, I found what I needed at a toy shop in Australia, and the cost for the doll and shipping was reasonable!

It'a actually a later iteration Wiggle, but it has a purple shirt which Jeff wears in the show. Wiggle Captain Feathersword will also be represented on this page by the ship and the feather. (Commercial feathers for hatmakers that are sterilized and sanitized first.)

For the very final page, I had a special request from Gimmee Sarah - a Caps for Sale page. She reminded me of how much JC loved that book (so do I) and so I am creating a scene where the monkeys steal the caps.

I had a made-for-school felt board story in my quiet book stash so I've pulled it out. I don't like the monkeys that came with it, so I am using some patches that were also in my stash. 

The last three pages came about after making a list of the activities already in the book and their tactile abilities and checking to see if I had any skills missing. I think the quiet book is in good shape. Almost done!

There was still something else left to do - shop for the cover fabric.

My current favorite TV show is Bluey. It's gentle, it's funny, and it's charming. So when I found some Bluey fabric, Lisa and I took a closer look at it. We rated it a maybe. ("Rita! This is on sale for only three hundred dollarbucks!")

 

More Bluey fabric! In, well, blue! Another maybe. (::growl:: "What?? Janet, one hundred dollarbucks is too much. Argh!!")

This sage green llama fabric was flannel, which would add to the tactile aspect of the quiet book. And yes; we bought a yard.

Mama Jaycie wants to own a farm some day, fill it with animals, and do animal therapy for veterans and others. Not a tactile fabric, but another yes. This fabric could be used to teach about animals, the sounds they make (which would not be very quiet but still!), colors, and more.

As we shopped, Lisa and I came around a corner and ran into a face that looked familiar and took me a moment to figure out who I was seeing.

Former student Lacie from my very last class of teaching!

Lacie and me on her first day of 4th grade. She'd brought me a vase of cut flowers from her own garden and we took a picture together.

It was lovely to see her, catch up a bit (she's going to Purdue in Elementary Education!), and to hear about her brother Trey, who I'd also taught, and his plans as well as his upcoming wedding.

Off to go work on the quiet book. Family starts arriving in eight days so I am working every moment I can grab.

Stay 'tooned!

More Quiet Book Progress & the May Give Away

Second Post of the Day

It's Spring and my clematis is so beautiful this year, I had to take a photo and share it with you.

I planted it shortly after we moved into our home in 2006. My father loved them and was the gardener in our family, so we always had one or two (with wooden trellises that he'd made himself) when I was growing up. As an adult, I have continued the tradition of growing a clematis in my yard. Not only are they beautiful, but they make me think of my dad.

Progress on the quiet book is going well. Three pages are completed and three almost so - just a few finishing details left.

The absolute hardest part is writing the text onto the pages. I freehand it and you cannot erase or change a letter once it's written. One error, and you have ruined the page. 

And so I practice, and practice, and practice. I try different fabric pens and different sized points on those pens. Different ways to write the text and to arrange it on the page. Get a feel for the fabric I will be writing on.

Writing on the cotton pages themselves is easier than the felt appliquéd pages. Felt has surface fibers that grab the fabric pen and tends to fuzz the written letters, too. But I think a felt background can make a page look even better.

In that case, I am writing the text onto cotton backed with interfacing and will then appliqué it to the felt. This is a mock-up of the Fruit Salad page (another nod to The Wiggles as well as to Eric Carle's wonderful book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.) I have some more fruit appliqués to finish prepping before I stitch it all down.

I have finished another Wiggles page. They are from Australia, so here is a kangaroo who plays her guitar with Murray! That's a cotton text piece appliquéd onto the felt. (I could not believe it when I found the exact matching color of cotton in my fabric stash!)

I wasn't sure I liked the cowboy hat so I asked Gimmie (Sarah, Elsie Mae's grandmother.)

I sent her these two pictures, but then took another of what the kangaroo would look like if I did add it.

Personally, I didn't like the square of velcro that would show when the hat was off. 

Sarah answered so quickly, I hadn't even set my phone down. "No hat."

Alrighty then! No hat it is. And I am glad I asked for her input. 

My mother helped me make quiet books for my grands which were her own great grands, and I know how much that meant, to her, to me, and to the grands and great grands. (She knitted the snowman's scarf for this page.) So, I am including Gimmie in as many things as possible. 

I will get back to the sewing table tomorrow, so stay 'tooned!

---

The Give Away ending date has been extended to Tuesday, May 19 at 11:59 PM Eastern. Because of Pepper's sudden illness derailing my writing time, I did not get double posts written as planned. They would have given you more opportunities to enter. This way, you will.

Inspired by Cambria and Titan's cute Highland Cow keychains last September, I'm making a few Highland Cow blackened beeswax ornaments to give away. I won't be pouring until June or so, but I think they will be worth the wait. 

Comment to enter!

Quiet Book Updates

First, thank you for your kind messages about Donnie's loss. The funeral was very well attended and we had Illinois as well as Indiana friends there. It was a lovely gathering and celebration of a life well lived.

And I did drop those flowers out the window on I-74 where my kids and I had sat for so long in that 90 degree heat.

The work on the quiet book continues to progress, so well so that I am not feeling too stressed about making that 4th of July deadline. (Although I may not have any spare time to practice for the annual  family bocce tournament...)

Ever mindful of me, Pepper is very much a presence as I work.

I had to work around her as I went through my ribbon stash, but I really don't mind. I understand why she is always so close and I respect and honor her for her devotion - even when I could really use that space she is lying in to sort out ribbons!

Decision made! I was working on the count-the-beads octopus; each ribbon was to be a tentacle.

One thousand beads. (I sure don't want to spill that container!) I needed ten different colors even though octopus have eight tentacles, not ten. Squid have ten, but an octopus is more fun to make.

More than ten colors! I was good.

I paired bead colors with ribbon colors, and then arranged them in a pattern I thought was pretty. (Color as well as by texture.)

I counted and I counted and I COUNTED as I strung the beads to ensure that the number of beads lined up with the number written above that tentacle.

I also used toggle rings with two rings  for safety to keep the beads from sliding off and becoming a choking hazard. Finally, I put hot glue on the tied end to double secure the tie.

I was really happy with how the octopus turned out until I parted the tentacles to see how it looked underneath.

It was too bare. I'm heading to the craft shop today to see what kinds of ocean/fishy appliqués and patches I can find. After stitching those down, the octopus page will be completed.

Also finished is the cover page which has a tying activity. The kitty needed a nose, but the fur was so dark and so long, it had to be something I sewed on rather than drawing one which would disappear in all that fur.

I found a set of domed pink, red, and white heart buttons, tried each one to see the visual effect, and chose the red button. Flipping the heart upside down made it look more like an animal's nose.

Also finished is the colorful spider web. The cord is about 18" long and secured under the back. Not only can the kids make different patterns of spider webs, they can also learn their colors with this page. (We teachers just never turn off that teaching gene! LOL)

Here are a couple of sneak peeks of some in-progress pages:

Another aquatic page waiting for more appliquéing.

A page related to The Wiggles, a suggestion from family as both JC and Jayci grew up watching the show.

Here's a hint about this page:

Not gonna lie - I love The Wiggles! There are four Wiggle-themed pages planned for the quiet book.

Busy day today around here. Nashie is coming over (which means transports joy for Nash, Tammo and Pepper), I have a doctor's appointment, shopping at a craft shop (transports of joy for me!) and then Ian is playing in a band concert this evening. (Cheering and applause coming up!)

Hopefully I will get some work done on the book; if not, no worries.

Stay 'tooned!