Felt fruit and veggie quiet book

I made a quiet book for another nephew who is celebrating his first birthday this week.

I pinned an image from someone's Etsy shop but it's no longer for sale.  I studied the couple of images from the listing and I think I came up with a good replica.  I loved working on this since it didn't have a tutorial.

I used felt cut to 5 1/2 inches by 11 1/2 inches.  Unlike the blue quiet book, I was going to use both sides of the felt .  One side could be sewn right on to the felt and the opposite side would have the fruit of veggie image placed on to some scrap fabric.  That way you can cover up the stitching from the back side by the larger scrap square from the front.  Sew a line 1/4 inch around all the edges of the square.  This will save your fingers from getting too close to the iron when you're pressing the edges under.  Fold on the sewing line and then press.

The scraps were cut 5 1/2 X 5 1/2 inches but I think I'll make them 5 X 5 next time.  I had to be careful I wasn't going to sew the edges into my "binding" after everything was done.




Background scrap
Red felt
White felt
Black embroidery floss
Brown ribbon
Green rick rack

Cut all your pieces and sew on some black embroidery floss seeds on to the white inside. Then attach the white felt to the red felt, cut some ribbon and fold it in half, tucking the ends under the red felt, then sew the apple to the backing fabric.





For the pear
Yellow cotton scrap
White felt
Black embroidery floss
Brown satin ribbon
Green satin ribbon

Again, sew the seeds to the white felt then the white felt to the yellow cotton. Tuck the ribbon ends under the cotton. Here's where I would suggest using the fusible web to attach the cotton to the felt. Zig zag stitch on to the felt.

The radish
Marroon felt
Green satin ribbon
Background square

Tuck the ends of the ribbon between the felt radish and the background fabric. Sew the radish on to the background fabric.


For the peas
Green felt
Green scrap fabric
Green embroidery floss

Sew the felt peas to the scrap fabric. Then fuse and zig zag stitch to the felt. Add some green embroidery vines.

Carrot
Orange felt
Green rick rack
Background fabric. 

Fold the rick rack ends between the carrot and background fabric. Attach the carrot to the back ground fabric.



Watermelon
White felt
Green felt
Pink scraps
Black embroidery floss

Add the seeds to the pink scrap. Sew the white felt ring to the green felt. Sew the white felt to the edge of the pink scrap and then zig zag stitch to the felt.

Eggplant
Purple felt
Green felt
Green rick rack
Background square

Sew the green felt cap to the purple felt. Tuck the rick rack between the eggplant and the back ground square and sew together.





Last page, lemon
Orange felt
Yellow felt

Sew the yellow felt to the orange felt and add some stitching to resemble the lemon segments. Sew the lemon to the felt and the lemon juice drops to the felt.

Arrange all the fruits and veggies on background squares to they cover all the stitches from the design sewn directly on to the felt.  I lined up most of my squares on the outside edges of the book so i could make sure when I sewed the pages together, I wouldn't catch any of the square in my seam

Fold the book in half and sew using a 1/2 inch seam.  I went back and forth a few times at both ends to ensure the stitches wouldn't come out.  

5 more blocks

I'm so close to being done with M's blocks. I've got some extra cut up squares and rectangles and even three less than perfect blocks I'm going to add as part of the design on the backing. My assistant is going to come up with a draft of the pattern in a few more days. It won't be much longer. I had hoped i could talk the little guy into letting me quilt it with an all over orange peel pattern but he wants straight lines instead.

Car caddy information

Here's the link again for the tutorial for Homemade by Jill.

Again, I skipped the freeze paper and cutting away for the numbering on the car pockets.  For this project, I blame the fact that I didn't have an Exacto knife to do the tiny work.  My husband has since fixed that since then. 

I used a pair of old worn through the knees jeans and a pair of some work pants that had seen better days for the duck fabric. 

The directions were pretty straight forward but I need to work a little more with my piping.  I left too much of the flat part exposed so it showed when i turned it right side out.  Next time, I will get regular velcro instead of stick on velcro.  I had to sew the stick on velcro to make sure it held.  This made my needle really sticky and I had to throw it away after I used it. 

My Quiet Book

Some notes.  I got the ides for putting the book together from this post Lella Boutique.

I didn't do the fabric lettering because I couldn't get a big enough font that I liked and I'd never used fusible web before.  I need to give it a try since several of my recent projects have called for similar applications.  Instead, I tried my hand at embroidery.  I love the result.  I used this tutorial and as a first time user, it was easy to follow.  I did a simple chain stitch but I hope to try out some other stitches as well. 

I didn't want to do a texture book since C is two now.  I searched the web and Pinterest for ideas for the other pages.  I was hoping to make it a one stop shop to pick up supplies at one store.  I knew they had tons of felt so I went there first.  I found that first and the snaps in a jiffy.  No buckles and most importantly, belting.  After 30 minutes of precious kid free time, I gave up.  7 minutes at a different fabric store I found everything, gave the cashier my digital coupon, paid and was out of there.  You might have to go to several stores to get what you're looking for. 

On to the hardest part, the shapes and snaps.  This time I made three copies of each shape using freezer paper and starch.  Before you sew the bottom part to the backing, sew on one part of the snap.  Sew the other part of the snap on one part of the top and then make a sandwich on the other part of the top.  Shapes and colors = 27 little pieces of fabric and freezer paper.  Next time I'm using fusible webbing. 

Some birthday gifts for nephews

I am soooooo late on these gifts but here are some pictures of two gifts I sent to my 6 and 2 year old nephews. 

I'll post pictures first and then repost some in new posts with some of my notes in case you have questions on how I put them together. 

Please see my previous links to see who posted them first. 

There's a marble maze on the left side between the back and the top white fabric. Since it's for a 2 year old, the maze in a simple up and down pattern. For older kids, you could make this more complicated. On the right, a buckle, zipper and belt type ring.

 

Counting with pony beads.



And the hardest part of the whole project. Shapes and colors.

 

Please look to my previous post about applique. Not my strong suit but I'm working on it.


And for the six year old, a car carrying case. He's into Matchbox cars so I wanted to give him something he could pack a few into and travel with.

 

All folded up.



Unfolded and sad. It's not full of shiny new cars.


Much better.

More Nikki bags

I made two bags for my friend L and her daughter L. I promised I would make her a bag if she sent me the materials. Turns out she had more fabric than I needed since she picked out a decorator fabric that was wider than the standard 44 inches. I needed to get a little more fusible interfacing and use some scraps for the inside and pockets but I was able to make a big bag for my friend and a smaller bag for her daughter. Same pattern just reduced to 80% in Adobe. I think I used a smaller seam on the handles just to make sure I had enough room to turn them. Good news though, no broken chopsticks. Just leave a large opening for turning and it's not too difficult.   

Some links

Yes, I know.  I'm over due for some pictures.  I've been doing some sewing lately and haven't gotten those last two matching bag pictures posted. 

In case you want to spy on what I've been doing, are the pages I've been using for my projects.

A quiet book.
I made some interactive pages instead of texture pages. 

And then a car caddy.
Two pairs of pants and some scraps later, I'm almost half way through. 

Here's what I've learned-
-I do not like to applique.  I've done the freezer paper trick but I just can't do it right.
-I need to invest in fusible web.  I can press and then sew down my applique pieces instead.
-I like hand embroidery though.
-It reminds me of hand quilting.