Part III - Shapes Quiet Book

Here is the third kind of Quiet Book that I finished over the last week. It's the Shapes activity book.

The Triangle page has a cute little tent which opens with a zipper to a little sleeping bag, also opening with a zipper.

Next is the Rectangle page which uses velcro to match colours and sizes. Next time I might do a sky background and make it look like a cityscape.

The Square page has the pieces of a house that stick on with velcro. Just the square pieces can be taken off.

The Circle page has a bus with wheels that come off (velcro again, but next time I'll use buttons to add some variety). The Oval page is the cute little chicken in a egg page that I've used in a couple of my other books.

The Diamond page is a little puzzle.

You can find my other two books here:
http://richesandroses.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/part-ii-alphabet-quiet-book.html
http://richesandroses.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/finished-four-new-sets-of-quiet-books.html

And a closer look at the Shapes book in my Etsy shop:
https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/167005046/toddler-quiet-book-shapes-theme?

Part II - Alphabet Quiet Book

This is another of the Quiet Books that I finished at the weekend. I'm really happy with the variety of activities to do on the different pages.

A is for Apple...

The colours on this page came up really nicely. The apples are fastened on with velcro. Beneath each apple is the same shape to make it easy to match the sizes. 

B is for Balloon...
I've used velcro again here to fasten on the balloons in a colour matching activity. In the past I've also used coloured buttons and metal snap fasteners.

C is for Cat...
This is a simple page, but nice for practicing tying knots or bows.

D is for Dog...
My daughter has one of these pages in her quiet book and she loves opening and closing the buckle. Great for fine motor skills.

E is for Egg...
I love zipper pages. I think it's because my daughter has always enjoyed playing with the zipper page in her quiet book. Such a simple idea to us, but for little ones, they love opening the zipper and finding a little surprise inside to take out and put back in.

F is for Fish...
Magnetic fishing is always so much fun.

Stay tuned for some "How to" posts in the near future :)

See more at https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/167014595/toddler-quiet-book-alphabet-theme?

Felt breakfast: egg, sausage, croissant tutorial

Sausages

For each sausage:

1. Cut a rectangle 7cm x 9cm from dark brown felt.
2. Fold the rectangle in half lengthways.
3. With needle and matching thread (I used three strands of embroidery thread), use a blanket stitch to join the edges.

4. Fill with polyester filling or felt scraps.

5. Use a long running stitch around each end of the sausage. Pull tight and fasten to close the ends.

Eggs

For each egg:

1. Print and cut out the paper pattern pieces. Cut out two egg whites from white felt and one egg yolk from yellow or orange felt.
2. Place the yellow egg yolk on top of one of the white pieces and sew two-thirds of the way around the yolk. Fill with polyester fill or felt scraps and continue to close the circle.
3. Place the second egg white underneath and sew around 1-2mm from the edge.

Croissants

For each:

1. Print and cut out the paper pattern pieces. Cut two crescents from light brown felt and a wrapping each from light and darker brown felt. The larger piece of wrapping should be from the darker felt.
2. Use blanket stitch to join the light brown crescent pieces, leaving a small gap. Fill the crescent firmly with polyester filling and close the gap with blanket stitch.

3. Sew the wrapping pieces together using a running stitch.

4. Place the widest part of the wrapping along the outer edge of the croissant and secure together using blanket stitch. Secure along the sides, wrapping the main croissant piece as you go. Finish off by sewing along the narrow edge of the wrapping.

Maternity leave projects

This time around I made it to maternity leave (yay!) and so I thought it would be nice to complete a few sewing projects. There's probably going to be little time for sewing for a while after No. 2 arrives.

I found this simple little pattern online for a reversible baby hat and made two, because I thought the monkey/helicopter design might be a bit loud for a young baby. On finishing the two though, I think it's the one that I prefer.

Sadly I can't find the website again to refer to it here, and it was in Dutch anyway. With lots of help from google translate, I worked out the main parts.

 I finished this bag this morning. I've been trying to decide on a new bag to make, one that's a bit summery. Now that it's finished I'm not sure if the colours are that great for summer, but it's cute all the same and good practical size for carting around those toy animals, snacks, drink bottles etc. I got the pattern from this blog: http://machenmachen.wordpress.com/2007/08/31/free-pattern-for-the-wasp-bag/. and I have to say that the adding the buttons completely lifted the look of the bag. I was actually a bit disappointed in it when I was done with the main sewing last night, but now that the buttons are on, I love it.

 Now to the felt food... Mia was given a play kitchen a little while ago and although being quite young, she was happy for a while to use anything to put into and out of the cupboards, I thought some felt food might be a nice addition. She had some plastic fruit and vegies, but these just look so much better. I found some great pictures online, but made most of the patterns myself through trial and error - there's also a steak to go with the broccoli and potatoes (the orange thing is fish, not an over-sized carrot!)




I'm also part of the way through adding to my backpack collection - just waiting on some supplies to arrive to finish them. And I thought I'd make myself a few new dresses for after this baby comes, but being disappointed in the choice of fabric in the stores around here (and the price), I'm waiting on some fabric to arrive by mail for those.