Trinity's Quiet Book, 2004

Trinity's was the second "grandchild" quiet book I made. 

 Trinity got Duffy for her title page and Sesame Street fabric for the cover.

I love the dress up girl - the fabric for the dresses are from clothes I sewed for my children. I don't do the elephant too often - his legs can pop off as they are on brads (or even tear the fabric of the book.)

 Balloons to match and the chick who uses tiny fingers to make a bill.

 Flowers in a vase and the turtle - I love finding interesting fabrics for his shell!

Looks like I need to make some new pieces for Trinity's pumpkin. And the tie the bow is for a lamb with soft furry fabric.

 I don't do the bunny shape matching often - they're hard to cut out and get right. I think the mittens were in Jessie's quiet book.

The fabric on this page has a story behind it. When Sarah was born, Craig was just starting out in his career and we were dirt poor. I made a lot of Sarah's clothes; in fact, almost all of them. I saw this fabric and drooled over it, but it was $3.49 a yard - a fortune back then. I simply could not afford it. I looked at it and sighed every time I went to the fabric store. Finally, finally, finally it went on sale and I was able to buy some and make her some overalls. This fabric still takes me back. Every time I see it.

JC's Quiet Book, 2002

I made a quiet book for each of my children as a gift for their first birthday and have continued that tradition with my grandchildren. I did not begin documenting what I had made until my mother and I were working on Corinne's during the summer of 2013; luckily Sarah and Ashley were gracious enough to take photos of the other quiet books so I could include them in this blog.

Here is JC's.

Winnie the Pooh for the cover.

 This train is a tradition - almost every quiet book has it for the cover page!

 The stop light and Katie Caterpillar.

 The orchard is obligatory as a nod to Apple Jack and Granny Slash, and the Illini tipi speaks for itself.

 Dumbo and shape matching (a hard one; I rarely do it.)

 Normally the pencil and pad of paper are the last page, but I changed it up for JC. And the flowers in a vase page is a favorite.

 That clock sure looks dated! And usually I include a "tie the bow" of some sort.

This page was in Sarah's quiet book. The mitten fabric is from JC's Christmas stocking.

Easter Pillowcases!

My friend and fellow grandmother, Lisa Connolly, told me about a sewing project she was doing - sewing Easter pillowcases for her grandchildren. Easy to do, she had had success making three for her three grandchildren.

It sounded like a great idea, and so I went fabric shopping and began!

Trinity: blue Easter egg

Braden: blue Easter egg

Addie: pink bunnies

Corinne: rickrack fabric

(I didn't make any for Julie, Cambria, Whitney, or Vanurt yet - they're too little for pillows. That's for next year.)

I had texted Sarah about JC - he's thirteen and too old for bunnies, but she assured me he would like a pillowcase, too. All I could think of was the movie, A Christmas Story, where Ralphie's well-meaning  aunt makes him pink bunny PJs for Christmas. Not wanting to be "that" relative, I purchased some more "manly" fabric for his.

Sarah affirmed that the football print was perfect, so that was the one I used.

The pillowcases were not only easy to make, they were so much fun that I decided to whip a few up for the kids of my Hershey colleagues.  Atticus MacLaverty (age 2, Jocelyn's son) got a green bunny print, Grace Ferguson (3, Sarah's daughter) got the large birdie print, and Alexa and Jack Evans (6 and 4, Cindy Evans' kids) got pink and green bunny prints.

I think I will do this for Halloween and Christmas, and maybe even Valentine's Day as well.