My husband and I sit by a young family at church and help with their children. They have six children with baby twins. We are more than happy to help with their 4 year old daughter.

Each Sunday I bring crayons or my iPad to help keep her quiet during the meeting. But I remember the quiet book I made for my own children. I definitely need to make a new one.

There is something about a soft, quiet book that is absolutely the best entertainment for young minds and hands. I am so happy I kept the pattern book. Did any of you have this book? .

My next few posts are going to be about my adventure in making a quiet book from this pattern. I believe this book was published over 50 years ago! Crazy!! It is still just as easy to follow and the kids still LOVE it:). Copies are even still available on line.

I gathered my supplies, cut my strips of background fabric and started the adventure. The first page I made was the bear with a bow to tie.

Isn’t he the cutest thing?! The pattern calls for coloring the bear, but I want this book to be full of texture, so I am opting for fur and felt whenever possible. I am going to be using my own method of reverse applique to stitch the fabric down.

I trace the pattern onto the sticky side of some fusible interfacing, and iron it to the back of my page fabric. I cover the FRONT with fur or fabric and sew from the BACK side. The lines of my dark pen show through the interfacing making it very easy to sew the exact shape.

I used felt for the eyes and nose. It is really easy to just stitch on the lines.

When I turn the fabric over after stitching, it looks a little wonky, but after trimming it turns out perfect:)

I did the same thing for the foot pads, but just used a cute checked fabric. I could have zigzagged the edges, but just opted for sewing around them multiple times. I like the look better.

Now Mr. Bear is sewn and ready for his bow!

Bows are funny little things to sew. You want to sew the ribbon down horizontally but you really need to sew it down VERTICALLY.

Here he is all ready to play with.

First page done!! Ohhhh, this is going to be fun!!

Enjoy your day! Please feel free to leave me a comment. I always love hearing from you!!