Tuesday, January 20, 2009

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!

14 comments:

Chelsea Wilkes said...

wow, I love this!! I have been looking for idea's for a quiet book and yours is by far the cutest! I have already coppied the pages you posted and cant wait for more! Thanks! Love it!!

Fowler family said...

Woohoo! So glad you are able to find these instructions useful Chelsea!

Rosie said...

by all means, add a link to my post on your side bar. =) I love that you're adding more pages. I keep sending people who ask about my book at church here for more ideas. =)

Hawkins Family said...

I googled quiet books today and found your blog. I love your ideas! I am helping with a baby shower and instead of games I want the guests to help make a quiet book for when the baby gets older. I think I would have outlines ready and they would each take a page and help cut and assemble, then I would take it home and sew it all together. I am wondering if you have any suggestions or advice for trying to do it with such a large group?!
Thanks,
Joanna

Fowler family said...

Hi Joanna,

I tried to click on your profile name to email you directly, but it said your profile was not displayed, so I'll just reply here (hopefully you'll check back!). What a GREAT idea for a baby shower group gift! I love it!. I would just suggest that the pieces of material (like muslin) are all equal sizes so that when you sew them together they fit together nicely.

Will you have a sewing machine at the shower? There is a link to a no-sew quiet book I have up there on my right side bar somewhere which might have some good simple ideas (the gal Rosie who made it commented before you). But you could also just take turns on a sewing machine (that's what my sister and I did when I was helping her make pages). Just have a bunch of felt and let the ladies go at it!

Thanks so much for commenting! I LOVE to hear from people who have come across the blog. -Anna

Hawkins Family said...

Thanks Anna! I will look into possibly having a sewing machine at the party. I am getting really excited to get this started. I will have to send you some pictures if they turn out well!!

Joanna

SarahMayberry said...

I am so excited to have found your blog! I am getting ready to start making a quiet book for my friends little girl :) Any ideas for girly pages?

Fowler family said...

Hi Sarah,

Yes, my quiet book is a little more "boyish" since I have 2 boys. However, you can make it more girly by doing some of the following ideas:

*A girl face with yarn hair (braid the hair)
*A cupcake/oven page: I have this in my quiet book, just haven't posted instructions on it. If you look at the picture that shows all 24 of the pages at a glance, you'll see it (email me if you want general instructions- fowlerfam at gmail dot com)
*The weave a tower one could be made into a weave a bedspread (or make the bed)- just have the felt strips braid together into a bed top vs. a tower
*On the getting dressed page, you could make it be a girl that you dress vs. a boy.
*You could do a buckle page with a buckle and some black felt that looks like mary janes.

Hope that helps!

Fowler family said...

PS- all you gals with quiet books in the makin'- feel free to grab my "I'm making a quiet book" button (on the sidebar of my blog)and put it on your blogs. You should all be proud of making these books! They are a lot of work, but the finished product is so worth it!

Jacki said...

ha ha, we have a Noah's Ark for our kids to play with and I can't ever remember his wife's name so I call her mrs. Noah, too!!
I looked it up tho and it's either Naamah or Emzara, which I'm sure to forget as soon as we play w/ the ark again.

Sherri @ Dude I Made It said...

I made a quiet book and loved looking at your ideas for inspiration.


http://dudeimadeit.blogspot.com/2010/01/quiet-book.html


Thanks so much.

Rachat de credit said...

Thank you it was a great help, now to make a quiet book is easy with your advice. Thanks

Mutuelle sante said...

Thank you so much it is a wonderful guide, now to make a quiet book is without a doubt simple with the help of your advice. Thank you

Kourtney said...

Thanks so much for the ideas! I already had the Ikea finger puppets and was excited to end their days of floating around in the toy box!
You can see my Noah's Ark page here: http://deserethome.blogspot.com/2012/03/reverent-book.html