Page 17: Teddy Bear Tie

Items Needed: Brown and Pink felt for the bear, Googly eyes, 3 fun little buttons, about 18" of ribbon for the tie

Teaches: Tie a bow or knot, ABC letters/primary colors if you have ABC buttons in red blue and red.

Cut out the following pieces: Cut a large "teddy-bear-shape" out of your brown felt (see suggestions on measurement below in directions), cut out little pink pieces for the ears, nose, hands and feet. Cut your ribbon in half so each half is around 9" long.

Directions: This page is fairly easy to make. I patterned this page after a teddy bear page in my mom's quiet book. I kind of just "eyed" her page and cut a bear shape that was a similar size (and could fit on my page nicely) out of my brown felt. If you need help "eyeing", my bear shape (from bottom of feet to top of ears) is about 9" tall, and from side to side (arm to arm) about 6.5" wide.

Sew your little pink ear pieces onto the brown felt where you want them. Do the same with the little pink feet and hand pieces, just sewing them 1/8" away from the edge. Then take your little round pink nose circle and before applying it to the brown felt, you are going to want to sew a nose and mouth design on it. I did a sloppy job on mine with a black zig-zag stitch for the mouth and then just a back and forth (a thousand times) switch for the nose. You could also do an embroidery job here to make it look cuter. Then position the circle on the bear's face (you might want to also place the eyes in place so that you put the mouth/nose piece in the right spot and give the eyes enough room). Remove the googly eyes and then sew the circle into place.

Place your googly eyes onto the brown felt. I used heavy duty/industrial strength glue to apply the plastic eyes to the felt, you could probably also use a hot glue gun too. Or you could just make fabric or button eyes. I like the googly eyes because one of the things my boys like to do when playing with this page is tilt the bear from side to side and make his eyes shift.

Sew little buttons into place onto your bear's chest. I found some cute "ABC" buttons at Joann's, and I thought they could be helpful with teaching letters/colors on this page as well. Once your buttons are in place, take your ribbon and fold each strand over around the edge of the neck so it looks like it is coming from behind the bear's neck. Sew each strand into place. Fold over and sew the loose end of each ribbon so the ends won't fray.

Now all you've got to do is sew your teddy bear into place on the page. My bear took up almost all of my page (leaving 5/8" on the top and 5/8" on the bottom for when I sew the pages together). I also added a little text bubble with some white pellon and a blue permanent marker that says "Please help me tie my bow!"

Here's a picture of the teddy bear in my mom's quiet book. She used shoelaces instead of ribbon for the bow:

Page 16: Fishing

Items needed: Blue material for the water (10.25" wide x 9.25" tall), blue ric rac for the waves (10.25' long), a bit of white pellon to trace/color "Peter" or fisherman on (5" x 4" square will do), netting/mesh material* for fish net (4" x 7" piece), 6 buttons (make sure the buttons aren't bigger then your fish bodies!), and 6 pieces of felt in assorted colors for the fish). *Regarding the net/mesh material- I first used a sort of white mesh (think laundry bag for washing hosiery and stuff), but it was very flimsy and hard to work with, so I went to the fabric store and found this great fish-net stuff (very 80's but exactly what I was looking for) in purple. And it was much more durable. I don't know how to explain the fabric other than to ask you to think of the 80's and those fish-net sweaters people use to wear over tank tops. That's the kind of material it is.

Teaches: buttoning, putting things in a bag, colors.

Cut out the following pieces: Cut out the assorted felt pieces in fish shapes. For mine, I actually bought some pre-cut felt flowers (see pic below) in the dollar bin at Joann's, and then I just snipped off some of the petals to make them into fish shapes. For the net, you are going to want to cut it up in a tall rectangle that can be folded into thirds. When you fold the bottom up, that will end up being the pocket, and then the the part of the net that extends to Peter's/fisherman's hands will be the upper third (and will not be folded over).

Directions: First of all, I must give proper credit for this particluar quiet book page. My mom passed onto me a wonderful quiet book instruction booklet called Ann F. Pritt's Quiet Book, which unfortunately now is out of print I hear. Ann has a number of great ideas in this book and you can see the individual templates for each page via this link at the Idea Door. Then click to page 12 to see the "Peter fishing" page. Here's also a snapshot of the page:

You will want to print off the page from the above link and then copy or cut out the net (it will help you know how to cut the right sort of rectangle/shape for it), as well as copy/trace Peter in the boat. I kind of made his boat a little deeper and I gave him additional facial features. I traced him right onto my white Pellon and then colored him with permanent markers and then cut him out.

The first thing you are going to want to sew onto your white muslin quiet book page is the blue "water" fabric. Make it take up the majority of the page, with about 2.75" of the white muslin showing at the top of the page. I actually placed the blue ric rac on at this time as well and then stitched over both the ric rac and top of the blue fabric sewing it to the muslin. I sewed 2 lines of stitches here as the first one didn't seem to catch the ric-rac well enough. Then you are going to want to stitch the sides and bottom of the blue water material to the muslin page as well. I did a 3/8" stitch that was really close to the end of the muslin fabric (I didn't want this stitch to show once the pages were all sewn together).

Then you are going to want to position Peter/the fisherman (and position the net as well, so you can make sure you are spacing it well). Sew Peter right onto the blue fabric/muslin page, stitching him on real close to his edges.

Now, you are going to want to sew the bottom 2/3 of the net up on the sides to make a pocket. You may also have to finish the edge (my fabric came finished) on the lip of the pocket to make it so it won't fray. Then position the net on top of Peter's boat so that the upper 1/3 extends up to his hands. Remember to use this (page 12) as a reference with the net. It will help you a ton.

Make sure your fishes can fit into your mesh net. My fishes fit, but it is a tight fit. My fishes are about 2" long and 1" tall, and then cut of course in a simple fish shape. You are going to want to sew a button hole into each of the fishes. My button holes in each of the fish are about 3/4" long, but yours will depend on how big your buttons are (my buttons are 1/2" wide). Then cut open the button hole with a seam ripper, making the hole about the size of your button's width. Position your fishes around the blue water material where you'd like their corresponding buttons to be. Make a small X inside the button hole onto the blue material. Remove the fishes, and you should have 6 small X's in various spots around the blue material. Remember not to position the fishes too close to the page's edge as you will be sewing about 5/8" of the border of the page under when you sew the pages together in the end.

Sew your buttons onto the X's and make sure you reinforce them really well to the page as they will get tugged on quite a bit by little hands. It's much easier to reinforce now than to have to find and sew back on buttons later. Attach your little fishies and walah! You have a fishing hole!

Here's a pic of my Peter fishing page with raw edges (before I sewed the pages together). Yours should look something like this:

Optional: you can also sew on a text box like I did on my page if you want. I just wrote the phrase "Help Peter catch some fish" with permanent marker on a rectangle of white pellon, cut it out and sewed it to the top of the page.

Page 14 & 15: Oven & Cupcakes

This was one of my most favorite pages to make (along with the closet/getting dressed pages). I think I enjoyed it more because it got more of my creative juices flowing than the other pages. This page was actually thought up with the help of my friend Amy, who originally found the cute little felt cupcakes in the dollar bin at Joann's. She was showing them to me one day during a playdate and we started discussing what sort of quiet book page we could whip up to incorporate these cute little felt yummies. I have to admit, I love to see my boys practicing baking too ;) There's nothing that makes a mom more proud than to see her boys skillful and adept in the kitchen- so don't just think this is a girlie page! I only have boys, and they love "cooking cupcakes", and pretending their "H-h-h-hot"!

Page #14: the oven

Items needed: big felt piece for the oven, white pellon for the stove burners and panel of dials, some silver/metallic material, fun patterned material for inside the oven, 10" of an elastic cord/string, some felt scraps for the oven handle & circle-thing to anchor the hot pad's elastic string to the page, a small hot pad (consisting of 23" of thin white binding, two 4.5 x 4.5" squares of material, and a thin piece of batting cut in a 4.5" x 4.5" square to make it a bit fluffy like a hot pad should be), a small rectangle of velcro (to hold the oven door shut).

Teaches: cooking, imaginative play, counting, pockets, how to use a hot pad.

Cut out the following pieces: From the felt, cut a large oven shaped piece, with a little oven door cut out (that pulls down to open- I used pinking shears at the top for this, hence the zigzag cut at the oven door top), and a little oven door window cut out (a 2" x 1" rectangle). Cut a long rectangle and a circle from the felt scraps (a different color than the oven) for the oven door handle and the hot pad anchor. Also cute a small rectangle from the metallic fabric to use as the oven window. Cut it slightly bigger than what you cut the oven window in the big piece of felt. Cut out a large piece of fabric in sort of a skewed box shape (bottom 1/2 of the box is wider than top 1/2) to be used as the backing of the oven (seen when the oven door is opened. Lastly, cut 3 little ovals out of pellon (to be used as the burners), as well as a long rectangle to be used at the top of the oven as the dial/clock range.

Directions: Before I started, I sketched out my oven on a piece of paper to practice with how I wanted it to look and the right angles. I recommend doing this or if you like my oven, print off the picture and try to trace off of that. It's best to cut an oven out that has angles to it (see the angles in mine?) as it will make it easier when you are sewing it onto the page and differentiating the range from the oven. Okay, let's get started!

To start off, you are going to want to get your oven pieces you just cut out placed right and ready to go before sewing it all together. I would start off with the pellon. Take the white pellon oval pieces and with a black permanent marker, draw swirls on them to make them look like little burners.
With a finer tipped black permanent marker draw the dials and clock on the long rectangular piece of pellon. I used a pink permanent marker to accent this. Once you have these pellon pieces, set them aside (you'll sew them on after you get the oven door finished).

To start working on the oven door, first take your metallic material for the oven window, and if it is like mine, it probably frays, so you are going to want to either fold it over on the edges, or do a double stitch around the oven window like I did. Sew the window in place. Then you are going to want to sew a little oven door handle on there above the window with that felt scrap rectangle you cut out earlier. To do this, you are going to want to sew on the velcro at the same time (my velcro and oven handle are the same size pieces), so with the handle on front, and the velcro on the back, sew it into place. With the other half of the velcro, save it for later when you sew it onto the material used for the inside of the oven. Now sew a top stitch around the oven door. This will help keep the door from pulling/stretching.
Now with the oven door done, you are going to want to sew on your pellon stove top pieces. For the burners, I just sewed circles to keep them in place on the range. Next, you are going to want to place the material you want on the inside of the oven and make sure it fits nicely behind the bottom half of the oven appliance. I even trimmed my down a tad so that it wouldn't stick out around the edges. You can either sew on the velcro now or sew it onto that material when you are sewing everything to the page. I did mine before so I could get it over with, but if you're worried about your velcro shifting during top stitching, you could also sew it on later.

Place the oven on top of the material used for the inside of the oven, and place the entire piece on the muslin quiet book page where you want it. Now begin to top sew all around the oven (its borders, its creases(the places where you want it to look like a different angle/dimension is occurring- like at the top of the stove top, at the bottom of the stove top, around the front of the oven). If this stitching doesn't make very much sense, look at this oven picture and notice where the top stitches are on it. Remember I am not only using the stitching to stitch the oven to the page, but also to give the oven depth and dimension. Maybe other people don't really care to make your oven look 3-D, but I wanted that effect, hence the top stitching. It also serves as a good reinforcement to the felt. Speaking of reinforcing, I back stitched a few times where the oven door slit began on the left and right. I knew the door would be tugged on quite a bit and wanted to make sure it was reinforced adequately.

Once your oven is all sewn onto the muslin, you are going to want to make the hot pad! To make my hot pad, I actually just took a hot pad from our kitchen drawer and tried to copy it, just mini-size. My hot pad is 4.5" x 4.5" big.
To make it I first took 2 yellow squares of fabric, placed a thin piece of batting between them, and sewed diagonal lines (1" apart) from the left and and then the right to give it a genuine hot pad look. Then I placed the white binding tape around the ages, leaving a few inches at one corner to loop around and make a hot pad handle. I sewed this binding tape in place, and walla! you got yourself a kid-sized hot pad. I tied the elastic string around the loop and then placed the other end of the string under a felt circle and sewed that circle onto the page. I was a little worried about the string becoming unattached and making its way out of the circle, so I back stitched a bunch on the felt circle to make it a solid little anchor for that thing. There you have it. You're very own quiet book oven page! Now let's start cooking!
Page #15: the cupcakes and pan
Items needed: big rectangular piece of metallic material for the oven (7.5" x 9.5"), 6 cute little felt cupcake pieces from Joann's dollar bins (I found these in 2007/8 in packs of 10, so they very well may not have these anymore, if you can't find them, just make them yourself by cutting out cupcake-shaped felt pieces and sewing on little sequins to look like sprinkles on the top (or if you are super crafty, you could make little cupcakes that look like this), and an assortment of felt to make the 6 little felt cupcake liners/cups in different colors (I chose the classic pink, yellow blue since they reminded me of real cupcake/muffin cups).Teaches: cooking, imaginative play, counting, pockets, how to use a hot pad.

Cut out the following pieces: Cut the metallic material to a 8" x 9.5" rectangle, cut the cupcake cups so that they fit around the bottom of the cupcakes (mine were a trapezoid shape being: 1.25" wide at the base, and 1.75" wide at the top, and 1" tall) I cut these cups with pinking shears at the top to give them the zig-zag cupcake liner look. I also cut out a long rectangle of pellon to write the words "count the cupcakes" on and sew to the top of the page.

Directions: To start off, you are going to want to fold over the edges of the entire pan/metallic material. My material frayed quite easily, so it was important to to do this so the pan would stay in tact. Be careful about ironing- some metallic materials will melt under an iron. I folded over about 1/3" inch and then folded that over again and then sewed this fold into place by sewing around the pan's border. Then I sewed the empty pan onto the muslin quiet book page, just by sewing right over the border stitch I just sewed. Then you are going to want to sew the felt cupcake liners into place. Place them where you want them on the pan, and sew around their base and sides (so that you are sewing them onto the pan and the muslin page). Back stitch a couple times there at the top of each of the sides to give them reinforcement. Make sure the cupcakes can slip in and out easily of the felt liners. If you want a text box at the top, right something like "count the cupcakes" or "cook the cupcakes" on a piece of pellon and sew that right onto the muslin. There you have it! 6 delicious little cupcakes to nibble on and cook over and over!

Page 12 & 13: ABC's

There are a number of ways you could make this page. I used iron on letters fused onto different pieces of colored felt. If you could find felt letters pre-cut to begin with, I would use those as that would eliminate the steps of having to iron on the letters to felt, and then cutting the felt pieces to match the letters. I couldn't seem to find any alphabet-shaped felt pieces so I had to make mine "homemade" style.

Items Needed: 1 pack of iron-on letters (these are found at any fabric store. I've even seen them at walmart), enough felt to fuse the letters onto (I made my letters rainbow colors, so I used a bit of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple felt), 2 ft. of a 3/4" wide Velcro strip (sew-on, not fusible*), and a rectangle of fabric to make a letter pocket at the bottom.

*I prefer to use Velcro that isn't adhesive and can be sewed on. The reason is, is that in my opinion, stitches usually last longer than adhesives. If you try to sew on the adhesive Velcro, then you will run into a gummy/sticky needle which is not fun to sew with. So my advice is to just get a pack of sew on Velcro.Teaches: Letters of the alphabet, order, spelling, Velcro.

Cut out the following pieces: First, I cut out little rectangles of felt that matched up with the letters they were being fused to (notice I cut them out each as rectangles first. I didn't trim them to shadow the letters until I had first sewn the Velcro on the back and then fused them to the iron-on letter. This way I didn't have to stitch the Velcro on through the fusible fabric, which can make your needle sticky, and just the felt. It also makes so you don't see the stitch used to sew on the Velcro). You will also want to cut out your pocket. My just consisted of a long rectangle (7" x 3") and a lid for the pocket (7" x 1.5").

Directions:I first cut out my iron-on letters so that I had the entire alphabet in caps (A-Z). Then, I cut out rectangles of felt that would fit those letters in an assortment of colors, so the rectangles were different sizes depending on the size of the iron-on letter. So, for example, the W needed a large rectangle of blue, but the I just needed a little rectangle of yellow. Don't trim the felt to match the iron-on letters just yet, leave them as rectangles until you get the Velcro sewed on and letters ironed on.

Then, you are going to want to position your alphabet how you want on the 2 pages of muslin. I was able to fit A-P on my first page (4 rows, 4 letters to a row), and then Q-Z on my second page (3 rows, and the bottom 1/3 of the page was reserved for a pocket to store letters). Then, you are going to want to sew little squares of Velcro onto the back of the felt rectangles. Now I put the scratchy side of Velcro on the felt and the soft side of Velcro on the muslin, but you can do it either way. In fact, as I was ironing on the letters to the felt, I got nervous since the scratchy Velcro was on the back of the felt and was plasticky- I thought it would surely melt. It didn't melt, but I did place a cloth underneath just as a precaution. If you wanted to not have to worry about anything possibly melting, you could just make sure to put the soft side of the Velcro on the felt rectangles instead of the plasticky, scratchy half of Velcro.

To sew the Velcro squares on, first sew them on the back of the felt rectangles, then sew the other half of Velcro directly onto the muslin page, making sure to position them first where you want them on the page before sewing. Once the Velcro is all sewed on, then you are going to want to iron on the letters to the felt rectangles. Make sure to follow all directions given on the iron-on letters package.
Lastly, you are going to want to sew on a pocket. This is done real easy by just sewing around the bottom and sides of the rectangle (reinforcing on the side tops since it will get tugged on more up there), and then sewing on a little lid (I first sewed on a little "letters" word box onto the lid first). To make it so your pocket doesn't fray, you can either fold over the borders of the fabric of the pocket box/lid, or just use pinking shears and sew it flat on like I did. The pocket is fun to have to stick all the letters in when your child is using the blank page to spell something or put the alphabet in order.

Also, you may want to make duplicates of some letters if your child's name has double letters since that is probably something they will want to practice a lot. Just store the extra letter(s) in the pocket.

Page 11: The Tepee

Into the Tent! This is a fun little page that my kids like to put Mr. & Mrs. Noah into to "sleep" when they get off the boat. I also thought it would be fun to have a little compass (what kid doesn't like to play with watches or a compass?), so I made a little pocket for that. You could be creative and add whatever you like to this page in the white space. I found the compass at the dollar store as part of a key chain. I just cut off the part with the metal loop and sewed it on like that with a pocket for it to tuck into. My kids get a kick out of looking at the compass and figuring out which way is north.

Page 11: The Tepee

Items needed: A fun, "feely" material for the tent (I used some neon green fuzz), Ric-rac (in any color) for the stripes on the teepee, a tad bit of Brown felt for the Tepee sticks at the top, one small zipper (around 5-6" long- can cut zipper down if you can't find a short enough zipper- they often don't sell them short these days), a felt square in any color for the compass pocket, and a compass or old watch to stick/sew into the pocket. I found my compass at the dollar store in the key chain section. Optional fun things to stick in the teeppee: Noah figurines, animal finger puppets from Ikea, Go-fish/memory cards, cheerios for snacking on.

Teaches: zippering, imaginative play, compass/watch reading

Cut out the following pieces out of felt: Take your fun fuzzy/rigid/groovy material for the tepee and cut into a triangle (approximately: 8"w x 8.5"h x 8.5"h). Cut your ric-rac into 3 pieces that fit across the tent lengthwise and then some (mine measured to be 8.5", 6.5", 3.5"), Cut out three little sticks from the brown felt (I used up some of my scraps for these), and cut a little pocket (mine measures: 2.5"w x 2.25"h). I used a pinking shears cut on the top of my pocket for fun/durability.

Directions: Take your 3 pieces of ric rac and sew them onto your triangle. Leave a little bit of ric rac at the edges, and fold under the material before sewing so that it provides a finished edge on the ends (ric rac will fray). You are going to want to double stitch/reinforce the ric rac in the center of the tepee (I just did a back stitch there in the center while sewing on the ric rac), since that ric rac will eventually be snipped right through when putting the zipper in.

Then you are going to want to put the zipper in. There are a number of ways to do this. You can first cut the slit in the tepee and sew it on, or you can cut the slit AFTER sewing the zipper on. I cut it after, so I will show you how to sew it on in that fashion, but feel free to sew that zipper on however you feel most comfortable. First, place the closed zipper on the underside of the tepee, where you want it to be. Make sure to position the zipper so it reaches the bottom of the tepee, but not the top. You can pin the zipper in place if you want. If you've used a zipper that has been cut down, you are going to want to make sure to reinforce the stitches at the end of the zipper (top) over and over so the zipper doesn't fall apart.

To sew the zipper to the felt, just sew around it (by sewing on the back side of the felt, so the zipper is on top of the back of the felt, but the zipper is wrong side up), making a Π shape, with the opening at the bottom of the teepee. Make sure to reinforce the zipper at the top. Then you are going to cut the slit from the front where the zipper is hiding. You can use a pair of scissors or a seam ripper. You'll want to cut your slit slightly smaller than the length of your zipper so the ending is hidden under the felt (my slit was about 5.5" long). Now your zipper should be peeking out. Unzip/zip it a few times to make sure it works. You may have to trim the ric rac back a bit on the slit part so it doesn't get tangled in the zipper.

Then, you are going to want to position the brown felt sticks where you want them on the muslin page (you can pin the tepee into place if it helps), so they peek out of the top of the tepee. Sew the sticks into place, then sew the tepee ontop into place. When sewing the tepee into place, be sure to double reinforce the stitching at the very bottom of the tepee where the slit is (when you're sewing it will be a bumpity ride as you go from teepee material to zipper to slit to zipper to teepee material.

Lastly, you will want to sew on your pocket (very simple), just sew around it on the muslin leaving the top open so you can stick the compass inside (if you want to sew on some words like "compass", sew this onto the pocket before sewing the pocket onto the muslin page). I kept my compass on the little black belt it came on with the key chain (with the key chain part cut off) and sewed that black belt to the muslin so it could reach into the pocket as well as have enough slack to be taken out and played with.

Here's a picture of a similar key chain I found online, to give you a general idea of what to look for at the dollar store if you go compass-huntin':

There you have it! A Tepee! Now, go campin'!

And here's my mom's rendition of the Tepee page (the original!):

Page 10: The ark

In my book, I have the ark page and tee pee page side by side. It works out well this way since the little Mr. and Mrs. Noah figurines can be tucked away in the tee pee or ark (depending on if they've made it safe to the promise land or they are still afloat!).

Page 10: The Ark
Items needed: Brown felt for boat and boat roof, blue felt for windows and water, felts (in any colors) for ark house and door and "ARK" letters, blue ric rac for ocean tip. One small zipper (at least 6" long- can cut zipper down if you can't find a short enough zipper- they often don't sell them short these days). The items to put inside the ark are optional: animal finger puppets from Ikea, Go-fish cards with animals on them (cut down and used like memory game cards), Noah and his wife plastic figurines (I got mine at the dollar store, I've also seen them sold at Allen's grocery store in their dollar aisle).

Ikea Finger Puppets

Animal Go Fish cards made into memory cards

Noah and his wife plastic figurines

Teaches: zippering, matching (memory game), imaginative play.

Cut out the following pieces out of felt: Brown big boat bottom (mine measured approximately 8" wide, 5" tall), 1 brown roof, rectangle for boat house (mine measured 4" wide by 2" tall), a small rectangle for boat door, the letters A, R, & K, a 6" zipper (or longer/shorter depending on your ark size), big blue ark windows (4), small blue ark windows (2), a rectangle in blue/green to make the water piece at bottom (mine measured 9.5" wide x 1.5 inches tall- will depend on how big your muslin page is), and 9.5" of blue ric-rac to make the waves.

Directions:

First, you are going to want to sew the zipper on to the ark. I'm no spectacular zipper-sewer, so my directions will be basic. You can google it, but most of the instructions are quite advanced and for hidden zippers like on the back of a skirt or something. Here's what I did to sew in the zipper: place the closed zipper on the underside of the boat, where you want it to be. Make sure to position the zipper about .25" from the top and be sure to leave about 1" on the sides between the sides of the arc and the beginning/ending parts of the zipper. You can pin the zipper in place if you want. If you've used a zipper that has been cut down, you are going to want to make sure to reinforce the stitches at the end of the zipper over and over so the zipper doesn't fall apart. To sew the zipper to the felt, just sew around it (by sewing on the back side of the felt, so the zipper is on top of the back of the felt, but the zipper is wrong side up), making a continuous rectangle (don't worry, your zipper will come out and play eventually!). Make sure to reinforce the stitches well since this will get tugged on a lot. Then you are going to cut the slit from the front where the zipper is hiding. I started my slit by using a seam ripper and then cut the rest of the slit with a pair of scissors. You'll want to cut your slit slightly smaller than the length of your zipper so the ending is hidden under the felt (my slit was about 6" long). Now your zipper should be peeking out. Unzip/zip it a few times to make sure it works. Phew! Did that work? Zippers are hard to explain.

Secondly, you are going to want to sew on the A R K letters onto the boat bottom of the ark and the 4 big blue windows. Next, sew your little windows and door onto the arc house. Place the arc roof, arc house and ark boat bottom onto the muslin page in the positions your prefer. Sew everything in place by going around their borders (you might want to leave a teeny-weeny slot unsewn if you are going to put a little flag in there like I did- see last directions below). You are also going to want to make sure to sew the horizontal borders in between the ark bottom, the ark house and the roof (this will make the felt lay flatter on the page and not come up when you use the zipper).

Next, sew on the water at the bottom. I just positioned the blue felt at the bottom of the page and made it so it went all the way to the ends/bottom of the muslin (when the page is finally sewn together with another page, it will all look nice and finished). Also, it was touching the base of the ark (so the ark looks like it is on top of the water).

Then sew the ric rac atop the blue water so it goes on top of the ark, to create a wave affect.

The last thing I did (and this is totally optional) was I made a little narrow slit/slot for the plastic flag to be placed in in front of the boat. This plastic flag says "Noah's Ark" and was part of another Noah figurine set I got at the dollar store. To do this, just sew a little thin slit down (about 2.5")and then back up right at the end of the boat. Make it snug for the flag as the felt will eventually stretch. Here's a picture for helps: Tada! You should be finished! This is a really fun page. Probably my second most played with page in my book, so definitely a favorite! And if you really want the Noah/wife figurines but can't find them at your local dollar store or Allen's grocery store, you can email me (I've picked up a few extra- however I don't recommend this route because you are going to end up paying for shipping and handling, which will make this "dollar toy" much more expensive- make sure to look around at your local dollar stores first!).

And here's my mother's 35 year old ark (Complete with a little felt Noah!) that inspired my ark:
Stay tuned for Mr. & Mrs. Noah's tee pee!

Pages 8 & 9: Mail

*This is probably my most popular page for my kids to play with out of my entire quiet book.

Items needed: felt pieces in different colors for the pencil pocket, the notepad pocket, and some red/blue/white felt for the mailbox. Some ric-rac to decorate the pockets with. A small piece of white pellon (optional) to write a text box (mine says "write a letter, place it in the mailbox"). Once the page is finished, you will want to have a pencil, notepad, some envelopes and stickers to stick in the pockets too.

Teaches: Writing, imaginative play, practices writing and mailing a letter.

Cut out the following pieces: My dimensions for the pockets were as follows: pencil pocket- 5.5h" x 1.5w", notepad pocket- 5.75"h x5.25"w. I just came up with my measurements from an average notepad and pencil we had laying around If you have a certain unique notepad/pencil you'd like to use, feel free to alter the sizes. Cut out 2 pieces of ric-rac to adorn the pockets cut to the following lengths: 1.75" long and 6" long. The cut out the mailbox- I just took the design from my mom's quiet book. If you wanted to make a more modern looking mailbox you could come up with your own. To make a mailbox like mine, you are going to want to cut out a big blue box of felt that is about 6.75" wide and 8.75" tall. Then you are going to want to clip and curve the corners and edges to make it look more like a mailbox (take a look at the picture) and be sure to cut a pocket slit/hole in the top center of it. You are also going to want to cut out Red letters for the word "MAIL" and a box out of the red felt that is about 4.25" wide x 2" tall. You;ll also need to cut out a little keyhole ( out of blue and white felt)and white strip (out of white felt), but you can just eyeball these so I won't give exact dimensions.

Directions: We'll start with page #8, the pockets page. You are first going to want to sew on ric rac strips on each felt rectangle (about 1 inch from top edge). Fold over the unfinished ends of ric rac underneath the felt pockets before you sew on the ric-rac and sew it on that way so there is no unfinished edges of ric rac showing (as it will fray) . Place the felt rectangle pockets on the page and sew in place just by sewing on the left edge, bottom edge, and right edge (making sure to reinforce the stitch extra well as the tops of the pocket since that part will most likely receive extra tugging when the page is being played with. You can also put a little text box above the pockets by writing on a piece of white pellon with permanent marker and sewing the pellon onto the page.For Page #9, the mailbox page, you are first going to want to sew the red letters and the key box/key hole onto the big blue mailbox felt piece. Once you've got all that sewn on, you will want to sew around the mailbox hole for reinforcement. Once that is stitched, the mailbox is ready to be stitched onto the page. Once again, when doing this, take into mind as to whether this will be a left page or a right page and place accordingly with adequate space for 3 binder holes that will eventually be placed in the center (you should make sure to do this with EVERY page, just a reminder here since the mailbox takes up so much room and space is limited on this page). Sew the mailbox on by sewing around all the edges of the mailbox. I even sewed a line across the top for extra reinforcement (see picture below).

Place a fun pencil and notepad in the pocket (it fits a 6" x 4" notepad perfectly!). I also stick an assortment of envelopes and stickers (to use as stamps) in the pockets too. Your kids will be entertained for longer than you think! Plus, the little "notes" they write to each other and to you and dad are definitely keepsakes!

Stay tuned for the "ark" and "teepee" pages (my kids' next favorite pages) coming up next!