Faith and Felt Obsession

Thursday, 28 August 2025

Judges 9 - Parable of the Trees Quiet Book Page

In Judges chapter 9, Jotham prophesies against Abimelech who is found to be a prickly king.

Memory Verse: “Then all the trees said to the bramble,
‘You come and reign over us!’
And the bramble said to the trees,
‘If in truth you anoint me as king over you,
Then come and take shelter in my shade;
But if not, let fire come out of the bramble
And devour the cedars of Lebanon!’ Judges 9:14-15 (NKJV).

Materials needed to create the Parable of the Trees quiet book page:

A4 felt background sheet - I used red
my free template
felt scraps in gray, olive green, spotted bright green, bright green, mid green, and light and dark brown
beads and buttons etc to decorate the trees with fruit and bramble with thistles
a felt crown (or make one)
ribbon scrap
sewing thread in brown and to best match the page
a plastic thistle leaf (from an artificial flower)
hot glue gun and glue

Cut out your mountain pieces from the mid green felt. Sew them onto the same colour felt and cut out again.

Cut out the rest of your pieces from the appropriate colour felts and arrange them on your page.

Cut a length of ribbon for the crown and melt the edges (How to Stop Ribbons Fraying). Use the hot glue to attach the crown to one end of the ribbon, and sew the other end behind where the mountains will be on the page.

Sew the mountains down onto your page along the bottom edge. Then arrange the towers at either end of the mountains and sew them down over the side edges of the mountains so the mountains form a pocket.

Sew down the two tree trucks, and then use a close zig zag stitch to form a vine stem and branches. Sew the foliage in place.

Use hot glue to attach the plastic thistle leaf to the page along the centre stem.

Hand sew the buttons and beads in place on the trees and bramble. When I sewed the beads on the bramble, I caught some of the leaves in my stitches to keep it in place better.

Finished! Now you can play with your page.

Difficulty Level = Easy

If you are unsure on how to hand sew buttons, just look at a tutorial on YouTube.

Key Learning Areas and Skills

Judges 9 - bad decisions have consequences - don't make a prickly man king!
Imaginative Play - try the crown on all the trees (and see if you can remember their responses to being asked to be king)
Pocket Play - young children love pulling things out and placing items and putting them back (not always lol) into pockets - the crown piece can be hidden behind the mountain pocket
Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination

Read the Chapter

Judges 9

Devotional

This was one of the earliest pages I made when Tahlia was a baby and I had just started the project. I had read this chapter and because of the project, I was thinking about how to portray it visually for a quiet book page when I noticed that all the trees and bramble in this parable had purple fruit or flowers (olives, figs, grapes and thistles)... and of course purple is the colour of royalty in the Bible.

When Tahlia was a baby I wasn't earning a lot of money, and didn't have much to go buy supplies with. I had found an incomplete felt story set of the Frog Prince in an op shop and acquired it quite cheaply. That is where the crown came from. However, I was particularly perplexed about how to do a bramble - but, I really wanted to do the project. So I was praying about it regularly, and one day as I was pushing the pram along the side of the road, I saw a few plastic thistle leaves detached from some kind of artificial flower littering the roadside. I knew it was the answer to my prayer.

If you want to know about the plant that has been proposed to be the actual plant mentioned in the Hebrew (Atad), then watch this YouTube video: The Parable of the Trees - Judges 9 by Fig Tree Ministries. It has very scare orange/red/brown fruit, that doesn't taste very good and is not used to sustain people. It is only good for shade - if that, because it has shallow roots which use up all the water and does not leave enough for other fruit trees to thrive. It must be removed by fruit farmers, and is then only good for fire wood.

Parable of Trees - Heidi Hawkinson-Penny - Topic

I think the lesson to be learned for this story is - don't be a prick, and don't make a prick the king. Eventually you'll be devoured.

One extra thought - I love how concepts transcend language. Abimelech was a prickly man in Hebrew and English.

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Have you noticed many things that are cross-linguistic? I'd love to hear about what you found.

Thursday, 14 August 2025

Sweet Honeycomb Scroll

I found this adorable fabric and knew I had to use it in some kind of project.

There are a couple of stories in the Bible that feature scrolls that are eaten and taste like honey (see Ezekiel 3 and Revelation 10).

Alternatively, here are a few Bible verses you could use:

Psalm 19:9-11 (NKJV) - The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
Yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them Your servant is warned,
And in keeping them there is great reward.
Psalm 81:16 (NLT) - But I would feed you with the finest wheat.
I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.”
Psalm 119:103 (NKJV) - How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Proverbs 24:13-14 (NKJV) - My son, eat honey because it is good,
And the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste;
So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul;
If you have found it, there is a prospect,
And your hope will not be cut off.
Proverbs 25:16 (NKJV) - Have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need, Lest you be filled with it and vomit.
Proverbs 25:27 (NKJV) - It is not good to eat much honey; So to seek one’s own glory is not glory.

So I had to make this cute mini scroll.

I used a couple of dowel rods and some beads to make the "Etz Chaim" or "Tree of Life" wooden sticks of a Jewish scroll. I sewed the top and bottom edges of the scroll together, leaving enough room to get the beads through if I need to wash it. Although it is tight enough not to slip through easily.

I'm sure it will come in handy for a children's story at some stage.

I envision it becoming part of a bee themed sensory bin to inspire imaginative play. Perhaps I'll link it here later.

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What things could I include in a sensory bin?

Thursday, 31 July 2025

Philippians 2 - Jesus Humbles Himself and is then Exulted Quiet Book Page

Philippians 2 describes Jesus unselfishness and humbleness and asks us to emulate Him.

Memory Verse: “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow" Philippians 2:8-10a.

Materials needed to create the Jesus Humbles Himself and is then Exulted quiet book page:

A4 felt background sheet - I used white
My free template
cotton fabric for the star-scape
fabric glue or double sided iron-on interfacing
felt scraps in white, yellow and brown
very wide double sided white satin ribbon scrap as long as the cloud
a cross or crucifix bead - I used a wooden one with the shape of Jesus cut out of it since this chapter talks about Him humbling himself and even taking on the human form but I don't really like crucifixes as Jesus is not still on the cross - indeed He died and rose again! So I feel an empty cross is better...
A Sizzix Original and capitals lollipop alphabet/numeral die set or another method of cutting numbers about 2.5 x 3 cm in size - see my post on Letter cutting hacks. (Or you could just print them onto the felt using the sublimation/heat press method and save yourself a lot of sewing - see my post Sublimation Printing on Felt - Test).
sewing thread to best match the page

Cut out the lettering for Jesus' name from yellow felt and the underside of the cloud out of white felt and sew the lettering to the middle of the cloud so it reads along the flat line.

This had been sitting mid-way through sewing
for some days. I was sewing while waiting for
someone to put on shoes etc before we went
out. It got finished days later.
Seize the moment!

Sew the underside of the cloud with the lettering to some white felt with the white ribbon sandwiched between the layers along the flat edge, leaving enough ribbon to sandwich it underneath Heaven (and form pearly white gates) when you sew it down. Cut out the white cloud from the background making sure you fold back the ribbon as you go.

If you are using a fabric page background like I did in the above photo, you can either tuck the other side of the satin ribbon on the cloud under Heaven to form pearly gates, or under the fabric star section. So, either sew Heaven over the other half of the white satin ribbon, ensuring the ribbon goes all the way under the gates of Heaven - OR - cut out a section of starry fabric and use fabric glue or double sided iron-on interfacing to attach it to your page with the other side of the satin ribbon cloud hinge inserted un derneath. Once dry or ironed, use a narrow zig zag stitch to outline the edge and prevent the star fabric from peeling or fraying.

The cloud should flip down to reveal Heaven where Jesus humbled Himself to come down from, and flip up to reveal Jesus name being exulted.

Sew down your brown felt hill and attach your cross/crucifix bead so it stands on the hill but isn't covered when the cloud is flipped downwards (like mine was a little).

Cross choices

Finished!