Felt Playmat

I am so excited for this coming week! My parents arrive from the US tomorrow and then on Thur. we are heading to Thailand for the week. Bryan has off for Spring Break and Easter, so we planned the trip with my parents! We are also meeting up with some friends who live in Cambodia for a few days. They have a beautiful little girl around Jacks age... I wanted to make something special to give her, but no way could I finish a quiet book on time (or have all the materials, yet). So, I thought I would make her a single page book, in the form of a playmat. I took the apple tree from the quiet book and the garden from Homemade by Jills felt house. I took many of the ideas she used for the garden and put them on this mat. So, here's what I came up with this week. Ally's Garden!

It rolls up and buttons for travel.

Here are some pictures of the "play" features of the garden.

The flowers are in pockets and can be taken out and moved around.

The carrots are also in little "dirt" pockets. I put a pipe cleaner in the middle of each carrot to make them stiff.

I put pockets on the corn stalks and the cobs of corn have a pipe cleaner in them.

The lettuce, sun and one cloud are Velcro. The carrots, corn and lettuce can be picked and put in the basket next to the garden.

The apples are going to be snaps (can also be picked and put in basket), but my snaps are arriving with my mom tomorrow night. I plan to quick sew on the three snaps and have it ready when we fly out the next morning! I didn't want to wait to post the blog, so this is the without snaps picture.

I attached the tree to the background with a neat bark pattern. When all the felt side was done I put a flannel backing on it and just did some ties to "quilt" it. You can see them in this picture. (green and blue) I put a flannel (pink) edging around the mat to finish all the edges, and..... finished!

Making this makes me really excited to start finishing pages in my books as well. After our trip I should be back in business.

my quiet book project

I've been making as much progress as I can on my quiet book project, while waiting for my moms visit and her suitcase of supplies :o) I've had a blast designing and trying to execute the pages as I imagine. Here's just a sneak peek:

The clothes for the get dressed page ( I especially love the pjs :o)

I've also had to make almost daily trips across the street to my stationary store supply shop. I didn't want to take pictures inside (too many people), but I did snap this one of the outside of the shop. The place is just packed with almost every toy, hobby, stationary/paper goods, gifts and things you can imagine! It's quite a large one for Hong Kong, but it's probably the size of most of your living rooms :o)

next project

I've spent the last week gathering ideas and supplies for my next project. I am going to attempt making several quiet books. One for Jack, of course, and a few more for Jacks friends with upcoming birthdays. I will have different deadlines as birthdays come up, but I want Jacks to be finished by June 19th as that is the day we will be traveling back to the states. I was able get most of what I needed here, and luckily my mom is coming in two weeks, so I gave her a list as well.

I found lots of sites that gave ideas and am making a combination of several books. I've taken the pages I liked from each. Here are some pictures from http://www.quietbook.blogspot.com/ that I found in the online search:

This particular site is very detailed and gives instructions to make all the pages. I am just using the pictures and adding my own style to the ideas. I am also using the book that my mom made me for ideas. Surprisingly (or maybe not) a lot of the ideas out there are the same ones mom used in the early 80's :o)

My favorite outing this week was to gather the buttons I needed for the books. I went down to the sewing district in Sham Shui Po and found a store that sold just buttons. I went a little crazy, but had a blast. It was a little challenge keeping Jack in check, but we made it!

Ok, Jacks down for a nap, Bryan is off to a movie... I'm going to get to work!

it's finished!

This weekend I was able to finish my rug, yeah! It turned out great, not perfect, for sure, but I am pleased with my first attempt! :o) Here's how I put the braid together. First I secured the ends of five pieces together. Then I doubled back, I wanted an oval rug, you can also make it round, but then you start the coil right away.

I took my thinner fabric strip and sewed it on the bent end of the braid. Then I used a baby pin and began lacing, using the edge of the braid. I didn't go through every loop, but probably most of them. The more you do, the more tight and secure it will be.

Around and around! I just added to the thin strip as needed....You can see the light green color connected all the braids...

All finished!! Its probably around 3x4 feet, perfect for the space I have. Next time I will have to figure out how to end it, and have it look more even. The side that I ended on looks fatter than the other... On an oval, I think this would always be the case? Any suggestions? :o)

toy bags

After Christmas Jacks toys were a bit out of control. He doesn't even have that many, but with the additions from Christmas I had to organize. I had already purchased large baskets to fit into the book shelf I've been using for storage, so I needed a way to get the baskets organized. I decided to sew small bags with labels using scrap material I had around the house. Each on is different (size, shape, color) and most are even different colors on each side. I sewed strings into the side seams for ties. I had fun stitching the little labels for each, and now Jacks toys are somewhat organized. Of course, I'm the one who has to put everything back in the bags, so it doesn't always get done. He really likes bringing them to us to open and getting a surprise each time with whats inside :o)