Quiet Time - It Can Be Done! Part 1

Thanks to all you wonderful people who have left such sweet compliments on my juggling new baby + 3 kids + crafting + homeschooling. You remind me when I'm feeling overwhelmed & like life is a mess, that I am actually doing pretty well! My "me" time is non-existent and I have severely dropped my standards of what is a clean house, but I know I'm giving my all to the kids, which is the whole point, right?

One thing that has made that easier was to compile a bunch of fun activity stuff in the weeks before baby - that has been a lifesaver with the demands on my time & helping my kids not feel "baby attention resentment" as much. I found some cool stuff like Wikki Stix, Brain Noodles & invisible ink activity books, but I also wanted to make something special for them. 

 So, I did a Quiet Book. I still have the one my mom made for me back when I was a toddler and it's still awesome. I saw a few fab ones online and decided to make mine in the days before baby arrived. A few pages are ideas from How To Make A Quiet Book like the mail box & dress-up and the rest are ones I designed myself. Everything is made from stuff I made on-hand, so while it took a bit of time, it was really cheap to do and it has been a big hit with my kids, so worth the work. Since there are a lot of pages, I'm breaking this up into several entries with some how-to tips so you can make your own & please send links if you do!

Just A Note: Obviously I'm sharing these designs for personal use (not to be sold) and please credit me if using my page designs/pics. Thanks!!

You'll Need:
Materials - 8.5 x 11 felt - assorted colors
fabric scraps, ribbons, ric rac, misc beads, pipe cleaners
velcro, thread, embroidery floss, snaps, glue, etc.
eyelets & hammer


For Feed The Fish I sewed on a freehand fish bowl applique and then used elastic thread to thread on the fish beads. The fish food is velcro-ed on, so it can be removed to "feed the fish" and then little hands can make the fish swim to the top.


For Flower Garden I cut out some flower shapes in felt and then sewed them on to pipe cleaners. I fringe cut some felt for grass and stitched on some 1 inch pieces of elastic in loop shapes to attach the flowers to the page. On the opposite page I cut out a vase shaped piece of scrap fabric and stitched on some decorative ric-rac and then stitched it to the page (obviously leaving the top open, so flowers can be arranged in it).


For Mail Call simply cut out a mailbox shaped piece of fabric and cut a slot opening and then stitch on. You can stitch MAIL (or cheat like I did and use puffy paint) on it. I added a pocket on the other side with some folded & glued pieces of felt to make letters & postcards to put in or you can use/make paper mail for it.



For The Four Seasons I stitched on ribbon to make 4 separate rectangles on a piece of light blue felt and then freehand drew the beach items, tree, umbrella in felt, cut them out and stitched them on. For the weather elements (cloud, sun, leaf & snowman) I drew and then cut those out & stitched a snap on the backside & the opposite part of the snap onto the page. I used star shaped beads for the snowflakes in the winter scene. The pocket to hold the snap-on pieces was fashioned out of some vintage 70s quilted scrap that is made to look like denim.

Click HERE for more pages & pics of my mom's original quiet book for even more ideas.