What’s a quiet book? It’s a (generally handmade) fabric book full of learning activities. It’s meant to be played with in situations that require children to be still and quiet, like plane rides, church, waiting rooms, etc… They take a lot of time, love and effort to make, but the end result is a cherished family heirloom!
Page 5 in Jax’s quiet book is in honor of our love for Starbucks. Being a work-from-home mom, I only talk to my coworkers by phone and IM. If I have no errands to run, I can go days without seeing an adult besides my husband. So our local Starbucks became a place to take a break and interact with others. It became a beloved routine for baby and I, and he loves all of his “girlfriend” baristas and sharing (or not sharing!) pumpkin bread with me.
This page has features the numbers 1 – 3, as Jax has started counting along with me. Three is his favorite number to say. It also practices manual dexterity. For number 1, you can pull the one tea bag out of the cup and unsnap it from the page. For number 2, you can lift the cup sleeve to find the two coffee beans. For number 3, you can pull down the whipped cream to find 3 strawberries and pull them off the velcro.
My materials were: a brown felt square background, felt (white, green, pink, light brown, brown, cream and red), matching embroidery floss (plus mustard yellow for strawberry seeds), white machine thread, clear vinyl, white double ruffle ribbon, green satin ribbon, batting, a snap and red velcro.
To make the strawberries, I stitched tiny yellow seeds on each piece. I took 4″ of green ribbon and folded it into 4 loops. I made a stitch at the bottom then fanned it out. That got layered with batting into the two sides of each strawberry (one side with velcro) that I stitched together with a blanket stitch.
I stitched the stars on to the green circles, then stitched circle 1 on to the first cup, circle two onto a sleeve piece and circle three onto the pink frapaccino piece. To finish cup 1, I stitched the lid on then machine-sewed three sides down onto the background, leaving the top open to make a pocket. For cup 2, I blanket stitched the two sides of the sleeve together with a little loop of green ribbon to help Jax spot the flap. I stitched the two coffee beans down onto the cup. I machine-sewed the lid on then the cup down onto the background and the top of the sleeve flap in place. For cup 3, I machine sewed the pink cup and clear vinyl down onto the background. I folded the double ruffle ribbon lengthwise as I hand stitched it in swirls to one of the whipped cream felt pieces. When that was done, I stitched the backing on and added a ribbon loop straw. I sewed the bottom of the whipped cream on to the cup with the machine.
The tea bag was hand-stitched with a slightly smaller piece of batting and a piece of white satin cord layered in. On the other end of the cord I sewed the two halves of the tag, one side with a snap. The other part of the snap went on the page above the first cup. I finished up by putting red velcro down under the whipped cream to hold the strawberries. I’ll be adding some brown string to the strawberries so they don’t get lost on the plane.
I’m pretty much in love with this page, and Jax is too. He adores the tiny strawberries and wants to clutch them in his little hands. he lifts the flaps and says “boo!” I think he’ll enjoy playing with it when the book it all sewn together.
For more free quiet book patterns, go here! If you use this pattern, please add a comment or link to me. I really would love to see your version!
and embroidery floss to match.
