It's Finished!

The quiet book is finished! Completed one day before family arrived. I started it April 21 and put the last stitch in on July 1. Hours and hours and hours of work. But so worth it.

Not only do the horses on the cover represent me, but Mama Jayci wants to own a farm for veterans and others who are working through PTSD and other things so it's very much a nod to her.

The quiet book is a surprise for the JCs^2, but I couldn't wait to show it to family members who had helped or been following its progress. 

The video was made one handed while I talked and turned pages, so it's not the best, but you will be able to see what the pages look like and some explanation of them, too.

And, here are the individual pages in the order that they are in the quiet book.

The title page with a furry pup (that looks like a cat) that is wearing a bow to untie and tie.

Counting beads strung on ribbons. A Wiggles page despite the wrong-colored octopus. (It should be purple.)

There are visual attractions underneath the tentacles.  

And the waves were traced from a printing block I'd carved for an Art class in grad school years ago. I've kept that block in my desk all all these years!

Another Wiggles page with Captain Feathersword and Jeff.

The feather is intended for hat making and has been sanitized.

The Wiggles meet one of Great Grammy's favorites - the Very Hungry Caterpillar!

I had this fabric left from another project - it is very tactile and can change to silver as you brush your hands along it. There is no specific theme to the page, but I sure enjoy doing the color change so I think the great grands will, too.

Jayci and Aunt Trinity loved the Barbie fairy tale videos as kids. This represents The Twelve Dancing Princesses. The hair can be styled. (I may shorten those braids before I give the book to the family later today so they don't hang past the bottom of the page.)

Another Wiggles nod - an Australian 'roo with a guitar in her pouch!

A generational family favorite from childhoods (mine, my kids, Gimme's kids), Gimme requested that I add this page as she knew how much the book had meant to JC as a little boy. 

(Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. Don't miss it!)

It took me four hours to sew all those buttons onto this page!

A personal favorite of mine that I created. The ears are floppy and the mouth opens.

Dental Hygienist Great Aunt Jessica provided the snacks and the toothbrush, with the candy cane included as a tweak for Abby.

 I LOVE THE FORELOCK SO MUCH! Aunt Lisa found the perfect yarn.

This page has been in nearly every quiet book, if not all of them. My mom updated in 2016 it by drawing the buzzy bee tracks so her touch is on this book, too. ::sniff::

Quiet book #22 ends with a last nod to the Wiggles.  

Dorothy the gentle, rose-eating dinosaur

who has a mini stuffed bunny and a Grammy-made stuffed Dala horse in her mouth to play with.

The finished book - several inches thick due to all the 3D aspects of the interior pages.

So much work, but so worth it, too. I can't wait to see everyone's faces when they open it.

Stay 'tooned!

18th Century Riding Habits: At the End

Finally, and heaving a sigh of relief as I type, Lisa's riding habit is DONE! With four days left on my October 1 deadline.

The hem was 125" around and I had to hand stitch it due to the depth of the hem. (The line of machine stitches you see above is stay stitching, not the hemline.) 

I am still experimenting with 18th century stocks and have made several different styles. Lisa is leaning toward this one.

This is a jabot and another style I am trying. I don't have a pattern, so I borrowed this one from my sister and used it to figure out my own pattern.

As for my riding habit, I should finish that up tomorrow. I just need to finish hand stitching the hem and I'm done.

This photo is from a fitting - I wanted to be sure the waistcoat was pinned correctly into the jacket before I hand stitched that in.

I was going to make myself a jabot or stock, but I already have a beautiful fichu that my mother made me, and I think I will wear that instead.

Me wearing the fichu. For the riding habit, I will tuck it in more so that the collar of the habit shows rather than spread the fichu out over my shoulders like it is here.

 

Lisa and I would like to make our own hats to wear on October 9, and now that the habits are essentially done, that is my next focus. 

We've got the hats and an assortment of feathers to use

and the supplies to make our own cockades. 

Having said that, although we hope we get the hats completed, they are not a priority.

I have two hats already, and Lisa has my mother's hat from her days of attending historical reenactments, so making hats is not a necessity.

We also have our riding crops to modify - I did some research and pig whips resemble most what 18th century riding crops looked like and just need a little tweaking. Those are on order and scheduled to arrive Thursday along with silk stockings for us to wear under the habits.

Photo from Burnley & Trowbridge Company. 

We got the fabrics and patterns for the riding habits in July and I started working on them the first week of August. That's two full months of sewing, five to six days a week!

Just one (very long) hem still left to hand stitch before I am finished.