I almost got two pages done this week, but decided to start potty training Ellie on Wednesday instead of waiting until Monday as planned, so I spent Wednesday and Thursday watching her hoo-ha instead of doing…well…pretty much anything else. The good news is that we’re over the worst of it AND she’s been easier to train than her brother. Woot! Here’s a peek at the page in work:
The idea for this page came from the Piece & Quiet pattern carrot patch. After seeing it described as the most time consuming page, though, I knew I wanted to make some changes–for starters, just 6 veggies instead of 10. I wanted to use slits in felt instead of pockets because I wanted to have different kinds of root vegetables hiding below their green shoots so that the activity behind the page would be surprise versus counting (for this reason I also skipped stuffing the carrots, onions, and radishes–I wanted them to be able to hide better in the ‘dirt’).
It came out very much as I had intended, but I’m having a few second thoughts about my method. Already I pulled one of the green leafs off–felt is great at not fraying, but it’s not so great at being strong when it gets skinny. I’m also concerned that I need to shore up the edges of my veggie slits or have them rip from use.
The best part about it was how incredibly FUN this page was to make. It’s very freeing and whimsical to do a project like this and I have a feeling I’m going to be very sad when it’s over!
Toni - That page is so cute! I have been saving some ideas for quiet books for my boys, too, and I love this one! They are always helping me in our garden so I think they would really like it. Your fabric choices are great!
Kristy - Hopeful Threads - LOVE this!!!!
Susanne - WOW….If we were in person, I’d give you HUGE hug. I’m potting training L right now and I really HATE telling people. As I’m sure you know, the first thing everyone says is “isn’t she kinda YOUNG?” Or “Do you think she’s ready for that?” Or they just assume I’m a crazy tiger mom…..
Amanda - Oh, how cute! I need to start the construction of my pages for Liz’s book…I better get a move on so I make it before Christmas! LOL!
Deborah - what a labor of love this book will be. I made one for my nephew some time ago and it was hard to give it away after all the work that was put into it. Yours is darling already!
Heidi - This is adorable, what a great idea!
Audrey - This is so adorable! I was trying to not start anything new, but I may have to jump on the bandwagon for this one. It would be an awesome Christmas present!
Fran - Oh, super super cute!! You are going to have so much fun with this!
Amanda - I only completed the background for one page…I hope to work on more of it soon. The link includes the other projects I progressed on this week for WIP Wednesday…hope you don’t mind the multi-tasking of my posts! 🙂
Holly Abston - I love this page, but I have to tell you that I laughed until I snorted at this “…so I spent Wednesday and Thursday watching her hoo-ha instead of doing…well…pretty much anything else”
Carrie Kindt - This is so crazy, because I made up a page for my quiet book back in summer 2010 that looks almost identical to this! I totally made it up myself & thought I was so creative…haha 🙂 I was expecting to see you link back to my site, saying that’s where you got the idea. How funny! I can’t believe you have all the exact same things. It DOES help a lot to stitch all the way around the entire veggie, and have a stick inside for stiffness: http://www.simple-creativity.blogspot.com/2010/07/harvest-basket.html
Traci - I love your page, Carrie! I think having the basket there is really cute! My inspiration for this was the Piece & Quiet book page, but just with adaptations to make it easier. 🙂 One thing I know from working in the scrapbook industry is that we all have pretty much the same inspirational inputs so it’s not unusual for two people to come up with similar things! (As my friend Jen and I would endlessly discover when magazines issue would print on the same month and we’d both have layouts in there crazily similar that the other person had no way of seeing beforehand!)
Giggles - Would ricrac work for the greens? That would give it a fun texture and they have they super skinny stuff but it wouldn’t tear like felt does. I’ve never seen a garden page in a quiet book before. What a great idea.
Patti - Super idea! My grandparent would love this
The Ruffles Quiet Book | Lickety Split - […] in our one was pointless and looked a bit lame plus we found this amazing page on Pinterest (original source here) which I really wanted to copy. It doesn’t have a specific educational purpose but it is […]
Carol - I’m looking at soothing for my Adult clients with Anxiety/Disability. These would be really nice – we could do the art project and the Quiet book could then be a resource.
Thanks, Carol