Author Archives: Stephanie

Camping Quiet Book Page

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Camping! S’mores! Lanterns!

This page is sponsored by American Felt and Craft, who provided the felt and crinkle material. When AF&C reached out to me about providing felt for some of my designs, I knew it was meant to be… The next page I had planned to make was a camping one, and the gorgeous earthy colors available in wool blend felt were so perfect for it. And crinkle fabric to make my camp fire crackle? Yes, please! Read more about American Felt and Craft here. Read more about my thoughts on wool blend felt here.)

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Let’s Go Camping!

This page is a lot of fun to play with! There is a zipper on the sleeping bag – something Jax needs to practice. Inside is a little bendable mini-Jax to play with! There is a cave hiding a cute baby bear, a lantern that lights up when you press on it, hot cocoa with marshmallows, a crackling camp fire and all the fixings to make s’mores.

What I used:

The Background: I started with two sheets of cilantro felt and cut them away at the top to make the hills. You need to make sure the two sides line up where they will be sewn together at the center seam. I placed strips of wild blueberry felt behind the cilantro to make the night sky. I sewed the hills to the sky. I then sewed the table pieces to each page, making sure they lined up where the center page seam will be as well. I sewed the three pine trees down before starting on the cave.

The Cave: I sewed the cave interior down in the corner of the page, then sewed down the cave front, leaving the arch of the cave entrance open (see above photo.) I made the cave door by sewing the two door pieces together, then sewed it down into a flap along the top.

The Baby Bear: I first sewed the two sides of each far leg together, then pinned them between the two sides of the main bear body. I sewed a French knot eye with a little stitch in the corner on each side of the bear’s face. I stitched the bear together around the outside, then satin stitched his nose.

The Sleeping Bag: I pinned down the sleeping bag interior piece on top of one side of the upside-down zipper, folding the extra zipper tape under. I stitched along the edge of the felt, securing that side of the zipper. I then sandwiched the two outer sleeping bag pieces around the other side of the zipper (as shown above) and sewed along the zipper. To finish the sleeping bag, I sewed the two outer pieces together where the above photo is marked yellow, then sewed the outer pieces to the interior pieces (and the actual page) where the photo is marked green.

The Child: I made my child a mini Jax. I’ve included a drawing of girl hair in my pattern. I started by making an armature out of pipe cleaners. See the below photos for how I did mine. I laid the pipe cleaners on top of the pattern as I made it to be sure it would fit. (when working with the pipe cleaners, always fold over the ends so there aren’t any sharp pokies to hurt your little one!)

I started sewing the felt with his head. I embroidered his face (French knot eyes, a small stitch for the nose and a back stitch smile) then sewed the front and back head pieces on to the armature. I then sewed the front and back hair pieces on and added some stitches to show the hair. I sewed the hands on, then sewed the pajamas on. I added back stitching to the neck and chest.

The Camp Fire: For each of the three camp fire flames, I pinned the pattern piece on to two pieces of felt layered around a bit of the crinkle fabric, then cut through all 3 layers. Then I sewed around the outside of each. I sewed the two logs down to the page in an X, and sewed on the log ends with back stitched circles. I layered the flames together and sewed them to the logs along the bottom. The crinkle material gives the flames enough stability that the camp fire can stick up when the page is laid flat.

The Lantern: The body of the lantern is drawn to wrap around the LED light I bought. You’ll have to modify it if you use a different light. The light is a keychain, so I pulled off both metal rings that came on it. I started by sewing the bottom of the lantern glass to the lantern body. Then I laid the light in place on the page and sewed the lantern body down over it on the left and right sides (so that the bulb of the LED sticks up into the window.) Leave the bottom open, but sew a snap on to hold the light in. This way, you can get it out to change the battery. I sewed the top of the lantern on, then finished it by back stitching the sides of the glass.

The S’mores:

Marshmallows: I folded my square of felt into quarters, then stitched it into a tube as shown in the photo above.  I sewed the inner tube, sewed the outer tube, then around the bottom edge to sew the two tubes together. You could cut your felt in half first then sew one tube inside the other.

Graham Crackers: The crackers are stitched on both sides with a dashed line down the center, then little + stitches to make the “holes”. I then stitched the two sides together. I made two, but you could make 4 if you prefer.

Chocolate: The tops of the chocolate had 4 rectangles sewn on before I stitched the front and back together.

The Bowls: I simply sewed the folded bowl shapes and sewed them to the page along the curves.

The Sticks: The sticks each have a pipe cleaner insider them. I folded the extra length back at the top, then out to make the branch. I folded the extra bit of branch back to the main stick and twisted it the secure it. I then sewed the felt over the pipe cleaners. I added a loop of felt to the table to hold the sticks.

The Hot Cocoa: I started by sewing three mini pom poms to the hot cocoa. Make sure they are on there good and secure! That’s the first thing Jax tried to pull off! I sewed the top of the hot cocoa to the mug back. I stitched the handle together, then layered it between the front and back of the mug as I sewed them together. I added a snap to hold the mug on the table.

Jax is having a great time with this page. I think his favorite item is the hot cocoa and marshmallows. He loves the mini Jax, but can’t work the zipper yet. It will be good practice for him.

 

The Giveaway! I am super excited to announce that we’ve teamed up with AF&C to host a giveaway featuring many of the supplies needed to complete this page! One winner will receive the felt and crinkle material needed for the camping page, plus a mini LED light and a piece of clear vinyl for the lantern from my stash.

PLUS, two more winners will each receive a mini LED light.

Ready to enter this great giveaway?

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Reader Gallery – Baking Cupcakes

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My original page.

I have some super creative readers! I love when you guys take my patterns and change them, embellish them or completely twist them into something unique and new!

Here is a version of my cupcake page sewn by Jaclyn S.

My goal was to make this page even more interactive by making the eggs open with the yoke inside and I liked the idea of being able to take the butter out of the wrapper. I used a lot of clear vinyl which a got from clear pencil bags from target. I didn’t want to take the extra time to embroider the ingredients so I just printed it out, colored it and sewed it behind the vinyl. Super easy! I wanted to add the cupcake stand page because I wanted a place to show off the cupcakes after they had been decorated! (See more here.)

   

Karima did something completely unique – she turned the page into a playmat, also added my watermelon, tea and mug.

   

And Courtney and Victoria changed the colors and trims which gave the page a whole new look!

   

City Quiet Book Page

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City Quiet Book Page

The is page is a fun way to use up all those scraps of felt you generate while making a quiet book. Plus, it is a lot of fun to play with! You can match the vehicles to the buildings they go with, drive on the roads or “park” them for storage by tucking the buttons on the back of the cars into the road’s channel.

This pattern is very crazy with a million tiny pieces. I cut all of the smallest elements by hand, but I went back and drew most of them into the pattern to help show the shapes you need.

What I Used: the pattern, green background felt, two 9″ x 9″ squares of stiff black felt (plus scraps), felt in a zillion colors (I used my scraps!), a scrap of vinyl, a scrap of yellow ribbon and buttons.

I started by pinning the road pattern onto my green 9″ x 9″ background and basting all around it to mark the road. Then I sewed the main elements to the green felt.

Ice Cream Parlor: I sewed down the building and the roof. I made purple stripes on the roof with long stitches, then held them secure with some pink back stitching. I sewed the windows and doors down and outlined them. I sewed on the ice cream and outlined the cone. I did crossing diagonal stitches for the waffle texture.

House: I sewed down the building and roof. I tacked on the windows at the corners then used 4 strands of white thread to make +’s for the panes. I sewed on the front steps and the door, then cut out green bush shapes and did pink French knots. I sewed down the pool and cut a little scrap for the diving board. I used gray thread to stitch on a ladder and the diving board attachments. I sewed down the umbrella and table and added stitched on legs and fold lines on the umbrella. I sewed on the tree and added the tree house. I sewed a line of back stitch to show the roof line, and made several stitches across the tree trunk for a ladder.

Tip: Worried your French knots won’t hold up to play? Practice until you can make then nice and tight, and try adding a drop of Fray Check to then – using a toothpick to apply it.

School: I started by sewing the word SCHOOL to the sign strip. I sewed down the building and the sign strip. I sewed on the windows and door, then sewed a line down the center of the door. I sewed on the bell and made a French knot at the bottom. I cut out a pine tree shape and sewed it to the side of the building. I stitched on some playground equipment with thread, using tine scraps of red felt for the slide and the triangle base of the seesaw.

Market: I sewed on the building and the roof/sign base. I sewed on all the little fruits and veggies, using French knots for the peas and grapes. I sewed the door on and added a line down the middle. I stitched the grocery cart and wove some stitches in a basket weave pattern inside of it. The wheels are more knots. I sewed on the brown produce bins and used French knots to make the oranges and apples.

Fire Station: I sewed down the building and sewed on the garage door, windows and door. I added stripes to the garage door to show the panels. I sewed the words FIRE STATION 2 to the sign, as well as the fire emblem, then sewed it down.

 

Apartment Building: I sewed down the building, door and windows, leaving room between the two rows of windows for the balcony pocket. I decorated with balcony before sewing it on – little maroon rectangles to make planter boxes and green French knot plants. I sewed the awning on only along the curved top, and added lines of stitching for support poles. I used more scraps and French knots to make the planter pots on either side of the door.

I created the flames as a little flap sewn to the top of the building. I sewed the yellow flames to the orange, and I sewed two windows to the grey flame backing (so they line up with the windows on the building when the flap is down.) Then I sewed the two sides together. I sewed the flat side of the flap to the top of the building, flame side up. Then I was able to tuck it in to the balcony to hide it.

 

Roads: I basted a square of stiff black felt (it’s this, but only $1.99 at the store) to the back of my green background. Pins probably wouldn’t work well, but paper clips or binder clips might. Using green thread, I sewed the shape of my roads and pulled out the basing (see photo above left.) I hand stitched, but a machine would work well. I sewed a second square of stiff black felt to the back, going through all three layers. (This is why clips might save you time! Since this 9″ square will ultimately be sewn to your full page, how you bind the layers together at this point doesn’t really matter. I machine sewed over all this when I constructed the page.) Then, with my micro-tip scissors, I cut away the green layer and the top black layer inside the roads. It then looked like the photo above right.

At this point, all the blocks in the city will flop around and definitely not hold the cars in place. You need to add some stitching through all three layers, about a 1/4″ from the edges of the roads. I sewed all of the elements below through all three layers to do some of that, then stitched little flowers along the road everywhere else to hold it in place.

Other Elements:

At the end of the road below the market, I sewed on the gas station base and pole. I sewed the word GAS to the sign, then sewed that down. I sewed on the pumps, making a few tiny stitches for the details and hoses.

Below the road under the school, I sewed on the pond. I cut a tiny scrap of yellow felt into a duck shape, using yellow thread to attach it and cinch in his neck. I stitched in a triangle shape for his beak. I added green stitches with little brown tops to make cattails around the pond. I sewed on a picnic table and basket, as well as a grill. I added black stripes to the grill and a brown French knot burger. I sewed on the traffic light and made the lights with French knots and stitched a base.

Next to the apartment building, I sewed down a tree and added French knot apples. The produce truck can visit and pretend to load up on apples.

The flower stems are made from three green stitches that fan out from the bottom point. I topped the center stitch with either a French knot or a daisy loop flower. Bring your needle up through the felt at the base of your petal, then down through the same hole – but don’t pull it all the way through.  Where the top of the petal will be, come up through the felt and run the needle through the loop you left. Pull tight and go back down through the felt a little ways away from your last hole, making a tiny stitch to hold the petal loop in place.

Vehicles:

School Bus: On the front piece I sewed the black stripe, the door, the windows and the wheels. (Some of the wheels are sewn on with a simple “x” and others are a French knot with an “x” over top.) I  sewed the two sides together and added a button to the back. I chose to go through both sides of the vehicle with my button for strength, but it might not be necessary.

Car: Super simple! I sewed the windows and wheels to the front, sewed the front to the back and sewed on a button.

Ice Cream Truck: I sewed the windows to the front then sewed on the ice cream cone. I embroidered some ice creams in the window. The cones are three little stitches in a triangle shape with French knot ice creams and a horizontal stitch below the knots to make the part of the ice cream that overhangs the cone. The popsicle is just some vertical stitches. I sewed on the wheels, sewed the back and front together and added a button.

Fire Engine: I sewed the windows, flame design, “2”, wheels and an instrument panel (with a knot and a couple stitches for decoration) to the front. I took a bit of yellow ribbon and wrapped a tiny scrap of felt around one end, sewing it in place. I sewed the other end of the ribbon to the front piece and sewed a red button on top. I made sure my button wasn’t flush down against the truck – you need room to wrap the hose around under it for storage. I took a scrap of clear vinyl and stitched a yellow ladder to it, leaving some extra vinyl at the bottom with a tiny hole cut in it. I took the tiniest button I had (1/4″ I believe) and sewed it to the back of the truck through the hole in the ladder piece. That let the ladder pivot up and down. I sewed the back and front together and added a button to the back.

Produce Truck: I sewed the windows and wheel tot he front then sewed the front and back together. I placed the two truck be pieces on either side of the truck and sewed them into a pocket along the sides and bottom. I added a button to the back. I sewed French knot apples to the front of the apple pile, then sewed the front and back together.

Phew! All done! I’d originally hoped I could have the vehicles stay buttoned to the page and you just slide them around. But, despite the stiff felt, the cars pop out when you go around corners. My first car had a large 1″ button that did stay in much better than these small ones, but it still pulled out easily. I decided that I’d use smaller buttons that didn’t detract from the vehicles, and I’d use the channels to “park” then when storing the page. Jax likes to have those tiny cars in his little hands anyway, so he’s happy!

For more free quiet book patterns, visit my quiet book page. Stop by the Facebook page with requests or photos of pages you’ve made, and visit my support page to help me run this site.

A camping page is already underway! Previews are being posted on Instagram and Facebook.

Wool Blend Felt vs Polyester Felt

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I’m almost done the city quiet book page that I’ve been creating with my scraps of recycled polyester felt. But for my next quiet book page, I’ll be using beautiful wool blend felt provided by our new sponsor, American Felt and Craft (more on that here.) I’ve never worked with it before, and I’m really excited to try!

I thought it might be nice to compare the wool blend to some craft store felt made from recycled plastic bottles. This is the kind of felt I have used up until this point.

The felts are about the same thickness, but the wool blend is denser.

When you feel the two felts, they are about the same thickness, but you can tell right away the wool is much denser. The polyester definitely has a “right” and “wrong” side – the “wrong” side is super scratchy! The wool blend almost feels just as soft on the back as the front. It’s only a tiny bit rougher than the front.

After pulling hard on the corners of each felt sheet.

In the strength department, the wool blend felt wins hands down. I pulled hard on the corners of each of the felt sheets. The polyester felt stretched and thinned. It got fuzzy and I probably could have ripped it if I kept at it. The wool barely stretched at all.

I tried to smooth and stretch both of the felts back into the original shapes. The wool blend obeyed, but the polyester got fuzzier and stayed mostly stretched.

The above photo also shows how thin the polyester felt is. You can see right through it. The wool is nice and dense, which makes all the colors very rich.

  
wool vs polyester

I’m really looking forward to trying it out! Have you worked with wool felt? What are your thoughts? I’m wonder if it will wear my scissors down fast than the acrylic and polyester felts do. I should finish the city page tomorrow, then I’ll get to move on to the wool camping page! (For progress photos of my pages, join the Facebook page or follow me on Instagram at username iolstephanie.)

Quiet Book Pages from January through June

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Back in January, I wrote up a review of all the quiet book pages I had designed and sewn since beginning in September of 2011. Six months have passed and I’ve gotten so much done. Time for another look back!

Click a thumbnail below to visit a post:

                  

Top 5 Most Popular Patterns from January – June

  1. Sandcastle – 5 comments – 5,598 views
  2. Treasure & Pirate Map – 2 comments – 5,590 views
  3. Ice Cream Parlor – 2 comments – 4,487 views
  4. Cook Breakfast – 2 comments – 4,375 views
  5. Itsy Bitsy Spider – 12 comments – 4,054 views

Top 10 Most Popular Patterns

  1. Sock Matching – 13 comments – 14,459 views
  2. Circus Train – 8 comments – 9,337 views
  3. Forest – 7 comments – 8,898 views
  4. Starbucks – 2 comments – 6,378 views
  5. Mailbox & Letters – 2 comments – 5,681 views
  6. Cookie Shapes & Colors – 6 comments – 5,613 views
  7. Sandcastle – 5 comments – 5,598 views
  8. Treasure & Pirate Map – 2 comments – 5,590 views
  9. Rocket Ship – 6 comments – 5,574 views
  10. Astronaut – 2 comments – 5,440 views

I am so very happy to introduce you to Imagine Our Life’s newest sponsor. My addiction to sewing with felt has often lead me to browse online, drooling over the beautiful colors available in wool and wool blend felt. I am putting my heart and soul (and countless hours!) into sewing interactive quiet book pages that Jax will be playing with for years. I want them to last so that he can pass them on to his children. I knew I needed to try wool felt, which is thicker and more durable, and that is where American Felt and Craft really shines!

American Felt and Craft was founded on the idea that creativity means coloring with the whole box of crayons.  This philosophy inspired us to carry the largest selection of felt available anywhere on the internet. Because we know every stitch matters, we only sell heirloom quality felt and sundries.  We carry over 150 colors, shades, and tones to complete your personal work of art. From basic black to bubble gum, whatever you’re looking for, American Felt and Craft has the perfect color!

They had me at “heirloom quality” – because isn’t that exactly what we want to create when we are sewing for our children or grandchildren? You can find American Felt and Craft’s online store here and their Facebook page here. They ship worldwide and carry more that just felt. I’ll be trying out some of their crinkle material to make my campfire nice and crackly! Just look at those amazing felt colors!

Good news for you: American Felt and Craft will be offering a giveaway on an upcoming quiet book page. Can’t wait? You can save 15% off your first order with the code “imagine“.

Mermaid Felt Embroidery Art Piece

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I took a little break from making quiet book pages and patterns to do some sewing purely as a creative outlet. I wanted something that could be used as the newest masthead at the top of the blog (Not reading this on the site? Come see!) and also be framed and hung up on the wall of my craft room that doesn’t exist yet. I am placing this in with the quiet book pages as I am including the pattern and suggestions for a page.

I’ve always loved mermaids. My major in college was studio art, with a focus on graphic design and printmaking. I especially loved doing lithography. Most of my printmaking work features fairies, angels and mermaids. Here are a few photos of my college mermaid art. The colored pencil drawing is probably from my senior year in high school. My dad shocked me the summer before that school year by buying me a $70 color pencil set. I found these photos on my computer last night. They were taken in 1998!! Thus the tiny file sizes. One day I’ll need to get the portfolio out and take better ones.

     

I also always wanted to be a mermaid for Halloween, and I didn’t want to do it halfway. Without a pattern, I sewed together my vision of a mermaid costume. I used a stretchy sparkle fabric so the skirt could be long and narrow, but I could still walk. There was some interfacing built into the fin to give it shape. I hand sewed a zillion and a half scale-shaped sequins all over it. I bought cheap party favor shell necklaces and cut them apart to hand sew to a nude bra. I added a lot of accessories made from shells and fake pearls. I loved it and ended up winning a Halloween costume contest!

   

Back to the felt! I’ve been working on this for the past 2 weeks while waited for supplies for the camping page to arrive. Because I had sewing time to fill, I kept adding and adding to it!

I drew out a quick pattern for the mermaid and treasure chest, but cut the rest by hand. The two fish and the yellow and green anemone were based on this pattern, but cut by hand. I spent a lot of time on the hair, using 4 colors of thread and a ruffly trim for texture. I kept sticking more and more color into the coral reef. I really could have gone on forever, hehe. I love how it came out!

I am including my mermaid pattern by request. Click here to download it. You could easily make her into a little doll to go on a quiet book page. Just cut two of everything except her face and top so she has a front and back. You could make both her and the chest snap off the page, and perhaps those free fish as well!

     

If you use the mermaid pattern, I’d love to see what you make with it! Email me or stop by the Facebook page.

Link-o-rama!

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First, I’m very excited to announce our randomly selected winner of the Farmer’s Market quiet book page kit! Congratulations, Alison Regan!

I haven’t done links in a while because I’ve been so busy. Busy = very little time for reading crafty things online. But I finally got almost caught up on my RSS feed reading, and I have links to share. My next quiet book pattern is all drawn, but I am going to pause to sew a new blog masthead and finally renovate Jax’s thrift store fridge before starting on it. It will be a camping a s’mores page. Jax is excited about it after seeing a show about camping. It will be a perfect page to play with on my birthday weekend family getaway in July.

Hiking with Jax this past weekend

Here are some links for you:

Happy Thursday!

Baking Cupcakes Quiet Book Page

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A quick note:
Don’t forget to enter out blog-iversary giveaway for a chance to win a kit to sew
your very own Farmer’s Market quiet book page! You have until Wednesday.

I am super excited to have this page all done. It’s one of the pages I’ve known I wanted to do since I was first introduced to quiet books. I waited to start planning it because I really wanted to go all out. I’m glad I have so much experience now, because it turned out just how I envisioned!

Baking Cupakes Quiet Book Page

For those of you who belong to our Facebook page, you’ve been seeing a lot of sneak peeks and progress photos while I’ve made this page. I plan to continue that since it is much easier to update there ten make a ton of small progress blog posts. Make sure you join if you don’t want to miss out! (On another side note, I’ve had people ask how they can support this site and my free patterns. You can check out a little page about it here.)

everything put away for storage

This page is another pretend play page featuring cooking (like out Let’s Cook Breakfast page.) The left side features an oven with a cupcake pan, the right side has a mixing bowl and recipe book. The recipe book holds cupcake making ingredients, and the mixing bowl stores cupcake parts and a spoon. There are three cupcakes: chocolate, strawberry and lemon, and they all come apart into three pieces. This is very good practice for manual dexterity. Jax can put the cupcakes in the cupcake tray, but he is still learning how to fit the frosting on top of the cupcake (it goes on like a hat.)

What I used: the pattern, 2 sheets of tan background felt, a 9” x 9” black glitter oven background felt, two 9” x 9” aqua oven door pieces with window holes, felt (in gray, dark gray, white, pink, hot pink, red, yellow, aqua, lavender, purple, cream, cocoa, brown, dark brown, natural and tan), clear vinyl to fit oven window and recipe pocket, two magnetic purse snaps, a scrap of Velcro, two small pompoms, thin aqua ribbon, green ribbon for strawberry stem, decorative ribbon for mixing bowl (mine is this, but from the craft store) and embroidery floss to match.

 

Oven: I used my sewing machine for the whole oven to speed it up. I started with the cupcake pan’s tray, sewing the 3 cups on like pockets. Then I sewed the tray down to the oven back (I used glittery black – $0.99 for one sheet at the store, but plain black would work too.) I sewed 3 layers of the oven handle together to make it sturdy, and stitched it to the top of the front piece of the oven door. I took two scrap squares of felt (2 pieces thick each) and installed the male half of a magnetic purse snap in each. I sewed these on to the inside piece of the oven door at the top corners. I sandwiched the clear vinyl in the window I cut out of the two door pieces, then sewed all around both it and the door itself. I went around the outside of the door a second time with a zig-zag stitch. I sewed the black oven inside piece down to the left side of my tan background and zig-zag stitched the oven door to the bottom. I installed the other halves of the purse snaps through both the black and tan layers of felt once I saw where the snaps lined up. I sewed the page backing to the whole page, making sure not to sew the oven door closed, then set it aside until the right-hand page was complete.

Mixing Bowl & Spoon: I sewed some decorative ribbon to the bowl (just because I wanted a reason to use it!) front and sewed the front to the back along the top. I then sewed the bowl to the bottom right of the tan background all around the bottom. I sewed the whole page to it’s backing, then sewed the two facing pages together with a length of aqua ribbon caught in the seam. (This will be used later for the recipe book.) I Sewed the pages together like this.

For the spoon, I cut three layers of felt to make it sturdy. I then trimmed the oval part of the top layer about 2mm smaller than the other layers. I sewed them together all around the edged with a blanket stitch, lining up all the edges exactly. This caused the bowl of the spoon to curve like a real one would.

Recipe Book: I started out by stitching the recipe to the right side of the white felt “page”. I did mine totally by hand, but I later made up a pattern for you. The text is done in back stitch. The little felt pictures are sewn down in my usual applique technique of tiny perpendicular stitches around the edges. I sewed the white sugar, flour and backing powder with gray felt to make it show up more. I decorated the cover by back stitching the felt letters on, sewing down the cupcake and adding a pompom. I ran my needle straight through the pompom to sew it on.

I pinned the white page down to the inside of the cover and laid some clear vinyl over the left-hand side and the other end of the aqua ribbon sandwiched in like a bookmark. I sewed the page down, and made two vertical lines of stitched up the middle to make a book spine and close the right side of the clear pocket. I finished the recipe book by added a little Velcro to close it. I happened to have pink in my stash from years ago.

Cupcakes & Liners: The actual cupcakes are simply blanket stitched together all around the edges. For the cupcake liners, I trimmed the tops with my pinking shears to give that zig-zag look, then sewed the fronts to the backs along the sides and bottoms to make little pouches. I also added polka dot ribbon to my chocolate cupcake’s purple liner because I didn’t have the right polka dot felt. You can use whatever felt you’d like for your liners. Be creative!

Lemon: I sewed the four lemon segments to the cream colored rind, the sewed the rind to one of the yellow semi-circles. I sewed the two semi-circles together into the lemon wedge, then sewed it to the front of the lemon glaze. I also outlined mine with an orange-y thread to make it stand out more. I decorated both the front and back lemon glaze pieces with lime green French knots and cream colored stitches to look like sprinkles. I sewed the front and back together, leaving the bottom open so it can go over top of the cupcake and liner like a little hat. I then layered the two whipped cream pieces around it and sewed them together as well.

Strawberry: I had a little roll of pretty pink trim (mini ric-rac would work well too) I got for $0.50 at the fabric store. I stitched it down in two rows of waves on both the font and back of the strawberry icing. I made white French knots to add sprinkles. I sewed tiny brown stitches to the front of the strawberry to be the seeds, then sewed it down to the front of the icing through both layers of the strawberry. When I got to the top where the strawberry hung off of the strawberry, I sandwiched in some loops of green ribbon to make the top of the strawberry and finished the edge with a blanket stitch. I then sewed the front and back of the icing together, leaving the bottom open so it can go over top of the cupcake and liner like a little hat.

Chocolate: The chocolate is made the same way as the other two cupcake tops. I sewed down two shades of chocolate chips and added French knot sprinkles in colors to match my ribbon. I sewed a pom-pom to the top of the front. I then sewed the front and back of the icing together, leaving the bottom open so it can go over top of the cupcake and liner like a little hat.

Baking Ingredients: The baking ingredients are all pretty similar in construction. They are sewn together with a blanket stitch around the outside. Where noted, I use 3 layers of felt for stiffness.

Measuring Cups: I back stitched the letters onto the front of the cups. I sewed little stitches on the white flour/sugar parts to giving it texture. When I stitched the handles, I stuck an extra strip of felt to stiffen it.

Butter & Eggs: These are all just sewed together around the edges.

Vanilla & Baking Powder: I sewed the vanilla/baking powder down tot he front of the spoon, then sewed around the edges of 3 layers of felt for strength.

And that’s it! All the ingredients go into the pocket in the recipe book. I had Jax pull them out and put them into the bowl in the order the recipe asked for. He loved it!

He keeps trying to put the completed cupcakes (liners and all) into the oven pockets. If you want yours to fit into the tray with the liners, you’ll have to make larger pockets. He loves the three flavors I made. I may end up make more in the future. The pattern makes it easy to add on.

I hope you enjoy this pattern! Please send me photos or post on the Facebook page if you make it!

Anniversary Quiet Book Kit Giveaway!

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Our little blog is 1 year old this month! While I’ve been making websites since 1997 and blogging since 1998, it wasn’t until I had my little Jax that I decided to create a separate blog for all things crafty, creative and kid-friendly in our lives. It actually took a few months before I started to work on making the site because I needed a name.

When inspiration struck, it was due to two of my favorite songs: Imagine, by John Lennon and Across the Universe by The Beatles.

Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes,
they call me on and on across the universe.

To celebrate our 1 year “blog-iversary”, I am giving away a kit to make our farmer’s market quiet book page. This is not a completed page, but the supplies to create your own.

Included:

  • felt (winner decides if the pieces are pre-cut and ready to sew or not)
  • wooden tags (winner decides if the vegetables are painted on or not)
  • Velcro (the green Velcro will be cut into the needed shapes if the felt is cut)
  • ribbon & ric-rac
  • yellow seed beads
  • embroidery thread
  • needles (hand-sewing and beading)
  • (I do not have any more of the seed packet beads I added to my page, and they are no longer sold. These will not be included in the kit.)

How to enter:

  1. To enter, leave a comment in the blog comment form below. Make sure you fill in your email address where it asks so I can contact you if you win.
  2. For a bonus second entry, retweet the following tweet first, then tell me you did (include your twitter name) in your blog comment.

The winner will be chosen randomly in a week on Wednesday June 13th.

Good Luck!

Very Hungry Caterpillar Felt Board

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I’ve been quiet here on the blog while working on a large sewing project, though I’ve been posting regular updates on the Facebook page. I took a break from quiet book sewing to make a birthday present for one of Jax’s friends who was turning 2 years old. His friend adores all of Eric Carle’s books and was planning a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party.

I’ve been itching to try my hand at making a felt version of all the pretty food featured in that book, and I was excited to finally have the perfect reason to! I knew they would appreciate a handmade gift, so two weeks before the party, I started tackling the project.

The felt items were made using only s felt from my scrap bags (I sort all my felt scraps by color and store them in freezer bags) with the exception of the black background felt. I would have preferred to have a white background like the book, but I was purchasing  felt board to save time and money, and white wasn’t an option. (You could make your own felt board by covering a blank art canvas with flannel fabric.) I purchased this black felt board. It comes in green and purple, but I wanted to easily match the background to a felt color, so I chose black. The colors really pop on it!

Because so much detail went into each piece, they were all heavy and wouldn’t stick to the board without the help of Velcro. I used Snag-Free Velcro so they wouldn’t snag each other when tucked away together in their pocket. Each item was sew to a base piece of black felt, trimmed to size, then backed with another piece of black felt with some Velcro sewn to it. I sewed to backings on by hand with a back stitch, only going through the two black layers of felt so the stitches wouldn’t show on the front.

The Pattern
I’m afraid that I can’t post a pattern for this project here on my blog because I want to respect Eric Carle’s copyright. He does have a coloring sheet you could enlarge and use to make your own set. However, I have a PDF of all the sketches I did for my set, and I’d be happy to send it on to any of you lovely friends who would like to have it for your personal use. Please leave a comment below using the blog’s comment form (not the Facebook comment form – I don’t get notified of those!) In the email field, include the address you’d like me to send the PDF link to. I’ll do my best to send you an email within a day or two with the link.

Here is a quick run-down of how I made each item:

Fruits 1 – 5: For the sets of fruits the caterpillar starts out eating, I used rectangles of black felt as the background of each group instead of having tiny, separate fruits and numbers that would get lost. I sewed the fruits down to the background using back stitch and 2 strands of floss. For the stems, I used all 6 strands of floss: I made a knot in the end of my floss and came up from the back. I tied another knot flush against the felt to hold it in place, then made a knot at the end of the stem and cut of the rest. For some of the stems I went back down into the felt after the top knot to hold them in a certain position. Leaves were sewn down with a line of back stitch along the vein. For the strawberry tops, I made an x-shaped stitch in the center before doing the stem. The numbers are sewn on with back stitch down the center. I stitched little circles and open circles on the oranges to make the navels. I sewed all the rectangles to backing pieces with Velcro using the sewing machine to save time.

     

[img src=”http://www.imagineourlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/oranges.jpg” w=”600″ h=”200″]

The Very Hungry Caterpillar: I tackled this guy first, as he is the star of the show. The caterpillar and the butterfly were the only ones I used yellow felt as the background for sewing down all the details (I still used black for the back side with the Velcro.) I cut his segments out of various colors of green and blue. The color variations are more subtle in the book, but I was working with what I had. Each segment is back stitched down. You may need to trim them up to get them just right – different felt stretches different amounts – especially with little, tiny pieces. for the feet and antennae, I used 3 layers of felt to make them stiff and blanket stitched round the edges.

The fuzzy fringe along the caterpillar’s back was the most annoying part of the whole project, but I didn’t want to leave it out! I made each little fringe the same way I did the fruit stems, but without the knot at the end: knot the floss, go through the back of the caterpillar (the yellow piece only), make another knot, then cut off and repeat. I alternated red and aqua blue, then went back and spread out the strands and gave him a “hair cut” so they were all even. To finish him off, I sandwiched the feet and antennae between the front piece and the black back piece with Velcro and sewed them together.

Leaf: I back stitched around the outside and down the center vein, then made a stem and sewed on the backing.

The Beautiful Butterfly: I took liberties when translating the butterfly from the book to a felt design, so you could certainly “wing it”! In fact, I only used my computer sketch for the basic shape, and ended up cutting out most of the pieces by hand. (I later drew them on the computer, so they are included in my PDF sketches.) Everything is back stitched down except the tiny felt circles – I have French knots in the center of those.  I added two layers of yellow to his skinny body to add strength before sewing on the head. His face is satin stitched on and his legs and antennae are done the way I made the fruit stems. His arms are long stitches I added at the end. When he was all decorated,  I cut out a backing of black felt to match, added Velcro and back stitched it on, only going through the yellow layer.

All the junk food items are sewn down to black felt then trimmed to size. The backs are all done the same: I cut out black felt to fit the finished item, sewed on Velcro, then back stitched it to the front, only going through the two black layers.

Chocolate Cake: I sewed the top and layer on, plus some dark brown back stitch to show the corner of the cake. I made light brown stitches to add texture to the top and then sewed the cherry on.

Ice Cream: I back stitched a grid design on the cone, then sewed around the edge of the ice cream scoop.

Pickle: After sewing it down, I made lines of little dashed stitches to add the bumpy texture then added a stem.

Cheese: I sewed a strip of dark yellow down the side to match the book, then sewed around the edges, I didn’t bother to cut out the holes in the cheese in the black felt.

Salami: After sewing down the body of the salami and the pink ends, I sewed down little scraps and made white stitches to match the book. I stitched a bit of brown thread to the “tied” end and tied it in a knot.

Lollipop: I sewed down the middle of a long strip of brown felt to make the stick. I took a long strip of yellow with a point at one end and sewed it down to the blue circle (starting with the tapered end in the center) in a spiral, then sewed down the exposed edges of the blue circle.

Pie Slice: The pie crust is sewn down around the edges, except for the extra crust along the top-back of the slice. I made a basting stitch that I pulled tight to give it a little ruffle. The pie filling is sewn down with scrap circles in pinks and reds to make the cherries.

Sausage: The sausage is simply sewn down around the edges with little brown ties added on to each end like the salami.

Cupcake: I cut out the top of the cupcake liner using pinking shears to give it a zigzag. I sewed down the cupcake, then sewed down the cupcake liner using vertical lines of back stitch.

Watermelon Slice: The watermelon is sewn down around the edges. The seeds I cut by hand (very hard to do because they are so tiny. Use sharp, micro-tip scissors!) the sewn down with a few stitches running vertically down the middle.

   

Because this felt set is a gift and I went with a 12″ x 12″ travel size felt board, I wanted to sew a quick case for it. I had limited time – just a few hours on on Saturday – so I don’t have many photos to the process, but I’ll do my best to explain it.

I made the case so it could be zipped shut for travel or storage, opened flat or hung from a door knob at toddler height for play time. I used Eric Carle fabric in Very Hungry Caterpillar white/green and Grouchy Ladybug Grass green/lime. I already had a 36″ white separating zipper and clear vinyl. I purchased a pack of fusible fleece.

The finished size of the case when unfolded is 14″ wide by 28″ high (with the 12″ square felt board.) I cut rectangles out of both fabrics and the fusible fleece that were 15″ x 29″. I ironed the fusible fleece to the back of the green liner fabric according to the instructions. I cut a 14″ x 7″ rectangle of vinyl for the pocket. I sewed ribbon over the sharp upper edge of the vinyl, but it would be easiest to just use some bias tape. (I didn’t have any on hand.) I sewed the pocket down to the liner/fleece piece with a regular stitch followed by a zigzag to cover the sharp edges. I also divided it into a 4.5″ pocket and left the rest a large pocket for the book and bigger pieces.

 

I cut strips of the green fabric and lined them with the fusible fleece before making them into 1″ wide straps. There are a zillion ways to make straps. I started with a 2″ width, ironed .5″ edges in on each side, folded it in half and pressed, then sewed down each side and the ends.

For the felt board, I sewed down two 11″ strips of black elastic. (See the photo at the top for an example.) I folded the ends of mine under (towards the center of the case) and sewed them with a zigzag on the machine. It is probably easiest if you sew the elastic on by hand after finishing the zipper so you don’t have to deal with the elastic folding your fabric in.

The zipper is the hardest part to explain – especially without photos. You may need to search around for zipper tutorials before tackling it. I drew some sketches of the steps I took. I used a zipper foot when sewing the zipper on.

Here is the finished case when closed!

 

I hope you enjoyed reading about this project! I had so much fun doing it, and I was very proud to hand it off to its new owner. If you create a felt board case or Very Hungry Caterpillar felt set of your own, let me know! I’d love to see it…

Thrift Store Gems

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I don’t usually go to the regular thrift store. We have better luck finding things at the kids’ thrift store. The regular store has so many breakables, and Jax does not like being contained while we shop anymore. So, I usually only go there when there is a specific house item I need.

This morning my thrift store “spidey sense” was going off in a big way. I told Jax we were going to the “toy store” (kids’ thrift store) after a quick stop at the regular one. I brought the Beco carrier and asked if he’d like to be carried in it so he could drink the orange juice I brought and he agreed.

We pulled up to the thrift store and were greeted by a huge heap of large children’s toys outside by the donation drop off area. I wasn’t sure if it was just a staging area or if everything was for sale. Some things were priced, but others were not. My eye was drawn straight to a pink wooden fridge. Yes, yes, yes! Ever since I got Jax his little kitchen and gave it a makeover, I’ve been hoping a wooden fridge would show up. It was packed tightly behind a air hockey table so I could only open the freezer. It had water damage like the other kitchen and a missing handle. (I realized the water damage is from the thrift store, not the previous owners. I’d thought it odd a wood kitchen had gotten wet, but it seems they leave them outside int he rain and just close the complex gate at night.) I was able to tell that both doors had working magnet closures and it sounded like there was a shelf rattling around in the bottom. It had a nice curve to the top of it that would help it match his stove.

Jax was starting to freak out a bit after about 2 minutes of me looking it over (he wanted to get down and play) so I quickly went in and did a sweep of the store. I found two scarves for me for $2 each. I took them up to the register before Jax totally melted down and asked if the fridge was for sale. They gave me a price of $10, which is the most I would have paid, and I bought it. I’m afraid I broke a set that included a broken sink and a stove, but oh well!

 

I’m pretty sure I’ll be painting it red with silver handles. I need to make a new handle for the bottom door. I’ll probably also get some shelves cut out of MDF at the hardware store like the two I added to the stove. The super thin shelf that is barely resting on some tiny dowels right now is worthless. So far I’ve just scrubbed it down and disinfected it.

 

We headed over to the kids’ store next where Jax is allowed to explore and play. They allow that there, as long as you clean up afterwards. I found him a toy cash register that is basically a huge solar powered calculator. It has some laminated play money in it, but no coins. It is by Battat toys and Parent’s magazine and is no longer sold. It was $2.75. For $0.75 more, I got a wooden fire engine puzzle to put with Jax’s other wooden puzzles in his room.

I’ve done other little thrift trips in the time since I’ve last posted about it. Ive included photos of what we’ve found.

Reader Gallery – Dinosaur Quiet Book Page

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I love seeing what others create with my quiet book patterns! Now that they have been online for a little while, I’m starting to see so many great photos of the work you all have done! Keep the photos coming!

I will be featuring galleries of each page. If you’ve used one of my patterns and would like to share what you’ve done here on Imagine Our Life, submit it ion the Facebook Page or email it to me. I will link to your blog if you have one. If your photo is posted here and you’d rather it not be, just let me know.

This first gallery is for the Dinosaur quiet book page. The ribbons on the dinosaurs’ backs make it a very easy page to customize. I’m amazed at how different it looks just with different colored ribbons! Some of you took it even further and made a 2-page spread with volcanoes and additional dinosaurs. They are all great!

Photo Credits: Adriana A., Jen at Beebee Bellies, Bridget Mc., Ginna K., Rachel at her threaded needle, Jessica at Just Enough Style, Loree H., Susan at More Holiness Give Me and Philippa H.