Farmer’s Market Quiet Book Page

At last, I have another quiet book pattern for you! I got a little bit carried away on the details of this one, as I did everything but the veggies while on vacation at the beach. Feel free to simplify things wherever you need to.

Someone on the Facebook page suggested I do a farmer’s market page, and I loved the idea! I thought it was a great way to feature vegetables. Jax recently fell in love with this classic Sesame Street song from a sing-along DVD we got at the thrift store, so was is perfect timing.

This page features sorting and matching. I also added some seed packet buttons I found at the thrift store. (I’d originally planned to make potatoes, but when I realized all but one of my veggies matched the buttons, I switched to a super cute turnip!) They have the veggie names so Jax can read them when he gets older. Right now he just tells me the letters he sees. The seed buttons are no longer sold, though I did see some on Etsy.

All of the bins and baskets have green Velcro (the soft loop side) for the green inside part. I used Babyville hook & loop tape I bought at Joann’s fabric store. I didn’t use the hook side. I find that the hook side of Velcro ruins felt when you pull it off. Instead, I used snag-free Velcro on the back of my veggies. While they don’t stick quite as strong to the loop unless you press down, they do zero damage to the page or the other veggies!

What I used: The pattern, background felt in sky blue and olive green, felt (in natural, tan, 2 browns, red, orange, yellow, 4 greens, purple, violet and white), thin green gingham ribbon, tiny olive green ric-rac, varigated green ric-rac, seed packet buttons and wood tags (that I painted to have the matching veggie shown.)

Background, Sign & Large Basket: I pinned olive green down to my sky blue background. Once all the baskets were sewn down, I went back and sewed down the exposed edges of the olive green. For the sign, I sewed down all the yellow letters to the green backing, then outlined them with a back stitch in dark brown. For the large basket, I cut scrap strips of natural felt and wove them together a little larger than the basket shape. I pinned it together and trimmed the woven strips to fit, then sewed it all down to the page. I cut the green Velcro (loop side) into the basket top shape and sewed it down.

Vegetable Bins & Baskets: For the top baskets I cut three shapes for each. One was the base, one was cut into horizontal strips and one cut into vertical strips. I woven and sewed down the baskets the same way I did the large one. When I sewed them to the page, I let them puff up a bit to give a rounded shape. The tops are green loop Velcro.

For the middle bins, I laid down the tan backing piece, then the brown inner shadow piece, then the Velcro top piece and then finally three tan wood slats and pinned everything down. I used 2 French knots at each end of the wood slats, then did a running stitch across the top and bottoms. I did more running stitch around the top of the bin’s backing, then sewed down the Velcro.

For the bottom barrels I sewed down the barrel and the Velcro. I did a back stitch following the curve of the Velcro to make the lip of the barrel. I did a stem stitch to make the barrel’s slats. A back stitch would work well too.

I used plain wooden tags that I painted with craft acrylics as labels, sewing them on with loops of ribbon. If you have printable fabric, you could make tags that way to avoid painting.

Carrots: I decorated both sides with long, horizontal stitches in an orange-brown thread and sewed snag-free Velcro to one side. I sewed the two sides together with bits of tiny ric-rac sticking out of the top. I got my ric-rac at the craft store in the $1 trim bin.

Peapods: I sewed 3 peas down to one of the larger pod pieces and sewed snag-free Velcro to the other. I laid the smaller pod piece on top and sewed all three layers together around the edges. The top piece will become a little pocket.

Tomatoes: I sewed the green bits down to the fronts and snag-free Velcro to the backs before sewed them together.

Eggplants: I sewed snag-free Velcro to the backs of each eggplant, then sewed the purple pieces together. I layered the green tops around them and sewed them together as well.

Turnips: I sewed the violet tops to the white shapes then sewed snag-free to the backs. I sewed the front sand backs together with loops of variegated ric-rac sticking out of the top. That was also from the $1 trim bin.

Corn Cobs: I decorated my corn cobs with yellow seed beads. If your child will be playing with it unsupervised, I’d suggest skipping that step. For the corn silk, I tied a little bunch of cream-colored embroidery floss with a knot at the end. When I sewed the two sides of the corn ears together, I put the knot between them with the tassel stitching out of the top. I made sure to make a few stitches through the knot. I layered the green leaves over the bottoms of the ears and sewed them on. I sewed my snag-free Velcro on last, making sure to only go through the back layer.

For the seed packet buttons, I just sewed them on randomly by the big basket like they were laying out on the farmer’s market table.

I love this page! And I really love that all the little pieces use Velcro but don’t stick to each other or cause pulls in the felt. Jax knew just what to do when he sat down with the page. He knows all the veggies except the turnip. We’re working on that one!