Cut out the hand shape from the fake leather piece and sew it down in position. Cut out the fake fur piece and zig zag around all edges to prevent it from fraying, folding back the fur as you go. Sew it down along the sides of the hands and between the thumb and fingers, leaving the top edges along the fingers open so you can feel the smooth leather underneath.
Sew the decorative trim scrap to the edge of the arm end of the fur as the edge of Esau's good set of clothes that Jacob is wearing using zig zag stitch. Sew a section of felt to the edge of the page to finish the arm.
Finished!
Difficulty Level = Easy, plus No Sew version.
A very easy quiet book page! Just use hot glue wherever sewing is recommended for a no sew version (except on the edges of the fur - you will just have to hope it doesn't fray too badly, which it probably won't, but I like to be extra careful). Or you could fold and glue the edges of the fur, but will have to include seam allowance for that.
Key Learning Areas and Skills
Genesis 27 - Jacob, the deceiver, deceives his father and steals Esau's blessing
Touch and Feel - Jacob's hands were smooth, but Esau's hands were hairy - touch the tactile elements of the page (leather, fur, and decorative trim)
Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination
I think this is the first tactile quiet book page I have made, and I think it is quite fitting for this story. I was having trouble trying to think how to illustrate this story and thinking about a dress-up Jacob page with Issac in bed or something. But it was seeming too complicated, and as they say, simple is best. So when I thought about how I could simplify this page, this idea came to mind. I really love how something so simple can demonstrate the whole story so well.
This is another instalment to the Jacob the deceiver story-line. Originally Rebecca is surprised to find out she is pregnant with twins, and when they are born Jacob is a bit of a deceiver in that his fist came out first and a scarlet thread was tied to his wrist to mark him as the first born, but then he withdrew his fist and Esau was actually gets born first. That's how he got his name. Then he convinces Esau to sell him his birthright for a bowl of red lentil stew. A dumb thing to fall for, but I guess Esau feels gypped by Jacob, and now when he actually lives up to his name and deceives his Dad and steals the blessing, which Esau still has to look forward to, Esau gets mad. In a few chapters time, Jacob ends up getting deceived into marrying what may have been the wife intended for Esau.
I read in the Mishna that since Issac and Rebecca had two sons, and Rebecca's brother Laban had two daughters, that there had been some kind of agreement or arrangement made that the older son would marry the older daughter, and the younger son, would marry the younger daughter. But to Rebecca's dismay, Esau never went to claim his bride, and married locally instead. Rebecca at least wants Jacob to marry right, and uses Esau's anger as motivation to finally convince Jacob to go and claim his bride. By this stage, Esau had two wives already. Apparently Jacob was already about 77 years of age when he went to Haran (you can work it out from his age when Joseph was born and how long he stayed in Haran).
There is a big Mamma's boy theme going on here too. Issac says to his son, and Rebecca says to her son... Esau seems to be Issac's favourite, and Jacob, Rebecca's. Esau is a hunter, a real man. Jacob is a dweller in tents, a home body who does domestic things like cooking lentil stew.
So Jacob buys, steals and is tricked into getting everything due Esau. He wants the birthright, he wants the blessing, but not so much the wife. But it seems that they come as a package. And that God had plans for Leah too.
Cut out three larger rectangles of wonderwall or velcro fabric and sew them onto your background page vertically.
Cut out 9 rectangles of stiff felt and sew them down onto more stiff felt. Cut them out.
Cut out all the pieces for this page and sew them onto the stiff felt rectangles in the following order: tunics, arms, coats, heads, beards, turbans and crown.
Cut lengths of velcro and hot glue them onto the back of the stiff felt rectangles.
Arrange and re-arrange the pieces to form Abram, Lot and Melchizedek.
Difficulty Level = Easy.
A very easy quiet book page!
Key Learning Areas and Skills
Genesis 14 - Learn how Abram rescued Lot when he was captured from Sodom
Puzzle/Matching - Match the three body sections with each other - mix them up for fun!
Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination
Unfortunately I couldn't think of a very relevant activity for this Bible chapter. Perhaps I just didn't understand the story enough.
The obvious thing to talk about here is Melchizedek. He was both a priest and a king, which is very much unusual. And of course the book of Hebrews talks about how Jesus will be a priest in the order of Melchizedek. He will be both our Great High Priest, and our King. Thankfully He has proved Himself trustworthy and selfless by His willingness to take our place and receive the punishment for our sins in order to share His reward of righteousness. You wouldn't want anyone else to be holding all the power.
Perhaps I should have added bread and wine to Melchizedek's arms to make his priesthood clear. He is offering God's people (through Abraham) communion - a representation of Jesus' offering of His body (the bread) and His blood (the wine).
Abraham accepts and responds with a tithe of all. What will your response be?
Another lie, another blessing. What a theme for Genesis chapter 26 - but the ultimate theme is that nothing will stop Messiah from arriving as God planned.
Memory Verse: “Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife. Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”” Genesis 26:8-9 NKJV.
Materials needed to create the The Kiss (She is my Sister III) quiet book page:
felt in motley grey, white, green, purple, yellow, orange, dark brown, and two skin colours
three gold decorative materials to fit in with The Kiss painting by Gustav Klimt (go for circular pattern for the dress, and angular pattern for the tunic)
small green trim
tiny blue embroidered flowers (or cut some like I did) or you could actually embroider them
small scrap of narrow brown rik rak
clear craft glue if using decorative material which is likely to fray - I used polyacetic acid & ethylene resin based glue
hot glue gun and glue
one jewellery toggle clasp set in gold - I bought this (not an affiliate link)
white 4mm satin ribbon
Firstly, cut out the square background for "The Kiss" out of grey marle felt. Cut out your blanket out of the decorative gold fabric chosen and glue it in place on the grey marle square. You can use the template to ensure it is glued in the correct position. Once dry, sew along the edge of the gold fabric with a super-fine zig-zag stitch to ensure it doesn't fray.
Repeat this process for Issac's tunic. Then sew down a piece of orange felt for Rebecca's hair. I cut out a section where her face was to go, but I recommend not doing that and just sewing her face over the top of her hair. Again, use the template to position everything.
Next, cut out the rest of the pieces for "The Kiss" and position them on your canvas to make sure they fit together well. Sew down Rebecca's face and Issac's head. I also tried to line up the circles on Rebecca's dress with the circular patterns on the dress of "The Kiss".
Because my circular gold pattern fabric was quite translucent, I layered it over the top of yellow felt. I glued two layers to the felt, then trimmed and cut the slit through the two top layers again to allow the arm to pass through.
Sew the pieces down in the following order: Issac's hands, Rebecca's hand around Issac's neck, Rebecca's arm - ensure that her dress is in position and sew her arm over the top of the dress, folding the sleeve back as in the picture below.
Then continue and sew down Issac's hair and Rebecca's dress. For Rebecca's dress, start at the sleeve and finish at the arm. Glue Issac's sleeve and once dry, follow with another zig-zag edge to prevent fraying. You may notice it was difficult for me to see where the edge was and I got it a little wrong and had to do it again. Happily, I was able to cover the mistake with a blue embroidered flower.
I cut up the blue embroidered flowers to make them smaller to resemble the ones in "The Kiss" and then hot glued them in place. You can also hot glue the small green trim onto Issac's hair at this stage (but I hadn't found something to use at this stage so I actually did it last). I wanted to match the green trim with a green felt for the topiary bush to tie them in together. And then if I used a pale green, I wanted to use a pale purple for King Abimelek and vice versa.
Initially I was going to make the window out of brown felt to resemble wood, but I realised that the painting would look much better with a white border. Also, I figured that if King Abimelek was looking out a Palace window, why wouldn't it have been white-washed. Surely a palace back then would have been decorated nicely. But now I am wondering if he looked through a window into their house instead of looking out a palace window. But then again, it may have been similar to the David and Bathsheba incident, where the king's palace was taller than surrounding houses, and thus when he looked out his window, he could see straight onto the roof of nearby houses.
Arrange the window pieces onto a square of felt and sew down each plank in order. Make two window pieces (one a mirror image of the other).
Cut four little lengths of ribbon to form hinges and a latch, and melt the edges - see my post on How to Stop Ribbons Fraying. Thread the toggle onto one and fold and secure it to the back edge of the door that you want to open. Sew the hinges to the back edge of the opposite side.
Then hot glue the other side of the door to this one. Thread the round section of the toggle clasp onto the remaining ribbon and fold it as well.
Position the window in the middle upper portion of the page and make sure there is enough room for the window to open. I wanted to have a clasp on either side so the window could be latched open or closed, but there just wasn't enough room.
Cut out the window frame and pin it in position over the top of the hinges (but not the toggle ribbon). Pin and sew the inside edge of the frame only. Ensure there is enough ribbon length on the hinges to open and close the window freely.
Now cut out the blue page background from the inside of the window frame. Position "The Kiss" behind it before sewing down the outer edge of the window frame, tucking in the ends of the ribbon hinges and securing the ribbon with the round part of the clasp in place as you go.
Insert the toggle into the clasp to secure the window while sewing the rest of the page.
Cut out your remaining template or pieces and arrange them on your page to get the right position. Sew down the white pot while you have white thread on your machine.
Now you can sew down the pieces of your topiary bush - I couldn't get it to look right and asked Faith and Felt Obsession's Facebook followers to help me.
Thankfully someone noticed that I had two of the pieces upside down. When that was fixed, it fit together perfectly!
Complete the page by sewing down the pieces for King Abimelek in the following order: neck, head, hand, foot, brown rik rak as a shoe, tunic sleeve, hair, crown. Use your template too line everything up correctly.
Finished!
Difficulty Level = Intermediate
The main difficulty I had was sewing a super-fine zig-zag edge around the paper thin decorative fabric, especially where there was a second layer of the same fabric on top of itself (such as Issac's arm) which made it difficult to see.
Key Learning Areas and Skills
Genesis 26 - Lying will get found out!
Art Education - learn about the famous painting "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimt - see the article Art Analysis: The Kiss by Klimt by Artsper Magazine
Jewellery clasps - open and close the window using the toggle clasps
Peek-a-boo - open the window to find out what is behind
Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination
Yet another example of God blessing us despite ourselves. All three instances where a patriarch tells a foreign king that his wife is his sister, in addition to many of the matriarchs being barren for a long time before conception, are meant to portray that God's will WILL succeed despite the enemies best efforts. Jesus was born through a line of lying, wife-sacrificing and barren ancestors. God's strength is made perfect in weakness.
In Genesis 41, Pharaoh is sent two dreams and Joseph is pulled from prison to interpret them.
Memory Verse: "Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “Pharaoh’s dreams are one and the same; God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do." Genesis 41:25 (NKJV).
Materials needed to create the Pharaoh's Dreams quiet book page:
Cut out all the pieces for this page and the page itself from the Betty Lukens set. The Betty Lukens FAQ section has posted a cutting tips PDF.
Cut out all the pieces for this page and the page itself from the Betty Lukens set. The Betty Lukens FAQ section has posted a cutting tips PDF.
Sew the Betty Lukens page onto the background felt along three sides, leaving the top edge open to form a pocket. Pop the pieces inside the pocket (or better yet - play with them)!
Finished!
Difficulty Level = Easy, plus No Sew version.
A very easy quiet book page! Just use hot glue wherever sewing is recommended for a no sew version.
I am afraid this kit pictures corn in Pharoh's dream rather than grain as is much more likely intended. A corn can also refer to a kernel of wheat or other grains and is confused in modern day language.
Key Learning Areas and Skills
Genesis 41 - God is in control
Imaginative Play - was Joseph scared or confident when he appeared before Pharaoh? How would you feel?
Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination
The chief butler finally "remembers his faults" (not Joseph as requested), but he does get spoken of to Pharaoh. He doesn't include Joseph's innocence in his story as asked (I probably wouldn't either). Nor is the point of his story to help Joseph at all. I mean, I wouldn't be wanting to remind Pharaoh of my previous mis-favour either.
I wonder how much encouragement Joseph's dreams gave him when he was sold into slavery in a foreign land - the very land God had foretold Abraham his descendants would be enslaved in. His condition gets worse before it gets better and Joseph finds himself, not only a slave but a prisoner. Did his dreams still give him any comfort? I guess Joseph may have seen a chance to get out of goal when he was able to speak to the Chief Butler - someone with influence at court. And yet Joseph remains confident in interpreting the dreams of others, even though his own dreams are yet to be fulfilled and appear rather unlikely to come about.
I enjoy hearing how Joseph structured his speech with Pharaoh.
Of course, he cleaned up before coming into his presence. But after observing Joseph's favour with God, Pharaoh elevates him even further - even second in command! I can't help but feel that Pharaoh is continuing to represent God here in this chapter, and Joseph, Jesus.
He clearly delivers the good news first, and promises a favourable outcome before he begins. I wonder at this, because there is clearly not-so-good news to come. But it looks like Joseph is employing the old feedback sandwich technique here. He puts the bad news in between two pieces of good news, and Pharaoh seems humble enough to receive it.
Joseph is only asked to interpret, but he also proposes a solution - a bold move, no? It seems rather rash to suppose that Pharaoh would listen to a suggestion from someone straight out of gaol, but Joseph has obvious confidence. And it may be that his proposal is the exact thing which convinces Pharaoh that his interpretation is true - see the following short post Why did Pharaoh accept Joseph's dream interpretations and not the others'? by Shmuel Kogan.
Another reason Joseph may have been believed revolves around the text of verses 1 and 17. In verse one, the banks of the Nile are not mentioned, but they are mentioned by Pharaoh in verse 17. It is theorised that Pharaoh actually dreamed he was standing on the Nile (a god in ancient Egypt), and in an attempt to hide this embarrassing and sacrilegious fact, Pharaoh says he was standing on the Nile bank. It is suggested that Joseph corrected this (another bold move if true), thus Pharaoh could see that Joseph had knowledge from God - see Why did Pharaoh believe Joseph's dream interpretation?
Whatever the reason/s Pharaoh believed Joseph, we can have confidence that God is in control, able to influence world leaders, and churn out miracles in the face of dire circumstances. We also can have the confidence of Joseph when we are putting our trust in the LORD.
In Genesis chapter 40, Joseph correctly interprets the dreams of Pharaoh's Chief Baker and Chief Butler.
Memory Verse: “Then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.” Genesis 40:21-22 NKJV.
Materials needed to create the The Baker's and The Butler's Dreams quiet book page:
felt in dark brown, yellow, white, mint, light blue, mauve, light tan and tan
wadding scraps
gold grommets and tool set - I used 3mm inside diameter (perhaps 5mm height)
1mm elastic in mint, purple, and yellow - I bought these (not an affiliate link)
vine leaf beads
grape cluster beads
colourful bird beads - I bought these (not an affiliate link)
three small buttons
material suitable for the white baskets (don't choose anything too thick or it will be difficult to sew)
sewing threads to best match the page
hot glue and glue gun
scissors!
Cut all the pattern pieces (you can use these to help with positioning pieces later).
Use the template to help you position your pieces before sewing
Cut and sew down these pieces in the following order using matching thread - benches, butler's rear leg, butler's front leg, baker's legs, butler's head, dream circles, butler's outstretched arm, butler's torso, butler's bent arm, baker's torso with arms, baker's head, side loincloths, middle loincloths, pharaoh's cup (in butler's hand), and vine.
Draw basket outlines onto the wrong side of your basket material. Sew a very tight zig zag stitch along the top edges of all three basket outlines (excluding the basket base). Cut out the baskets, being careful not to cut any of the stitching. Sew the base basket onto the baker's dream circle using a very tight zig zag stitch along the top edge only. Lay the largest basket and top of the basket base and sew both edges down with a tight zig zag stitch till just below where the next basket's top edge will sit. Lay the next basket on top and repeat this process. Lay the smallest basket down and sew all the way around with a tight zig zag stitch from one side to the other, catching all the baskets along the bottom edge.
The material I was originally using was rather thick so I did a test to see if my machine could handle all the layers. It could, but to my dismay I read the story again and discovered that the basket was white!
I had to change my basket fabric... thankfully everyone on my Facebook page comments liked the white baskets better. That was encouraging because I liked the look of the dark basket better, but I do like to get all the details as correct that I can. Although the baskets being white may imply contents of white bread... but scholars are not sure, and I had already made the bread (including some white bread).
I also tried a quilted calico fabric but I think it would have been too thick
Use the pattern pieces to mark where you need grommets and install them (see video below).
Tie a grape cluster bead to the end of some green elastic and thread on a couple of leaves. Thread the elastic through the horizontal grommets along the vine adding beads to the elastic as you go. Finish by tying the end to the last bead. The elastic end should look like a tendril. Repeat this process with another length of green elastic along the vertical grommets of the vine.
For the birds eating the bread, thread three coloured elastics through the grommets from the back on one side of the baskets, adding a bird bead before re-entering the same hole. Continue threading the elastic through an opposite hole on the other side of the basket and add another bird before re-entering back through the grommet. Thread both ends of each elastic onto a button and tie the ends together. The button will prevent the knot from being pulled through the grommets and onto the right side.
To make the dark rye bread rolls, cut out the top pieces and sew onto tan felt around the slits. Cut them out and sew to another dark background then cut them out again.
Repeat this process in a similar fashion for the oval bread and pie. For the pull-apart rolls, cut out the top and sew down onto another piece of felt with a piece of smaller wadding in between. Add stitching down the long centre and two lots of stitching down the shorter part to add the 6-pack detail, then cut them out.
For the croissants, cut out the top pieces and sew them onto another piece of felt and cut them out. Roll them up using a small amount of hot glue to keep them in place.
Of course the baker would have been anticipating Pharaoh's birthday and have made him a cake. So cut out two cake pieces and sew the icing pieces on. Hot glue the cake together along the sides and top edges, leaving the bottom edge open to form a finger puppet.
Fill the baskets with the baked goods.
Finished!
Difficulty Level = Intermediate
The hardest part of this page is sewing the basket. It's not that bad!
Installing grommets looks difficult and scary, but once you try, they are easy and make you very satisfied with your efforts! The following YouTube tutorial by Irina Sorokina from My Craft Quiet Books should help.
Eyelets and grommets - My Craft Quiet Books
Key Learning Areas and Skills
Genesis 40 - this page is all about faith versus works
Imaginative play - squeeze the grape clusters into Pharaoh's cup
Pull-string - help the birds peck the bread from the baskets
Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination
Whilst researching and making this page, I learnt something exciting and amazing.
As a child I had thought the point of this story was to show Pharaoh that Joseph's dream interpreting skills could be trusted. But now I could tell something strange was going on in this chapter.
When morphing text into an image, I find myself asking lots of questions. One simple question I never thought to ask when reading this story before was "What kind of bread did the baker have in his basket?"
There are two kinds of bread in the Bible - flatbread and leavened bread. And since leaven (or yeast) is used to represent sin due to it's ability to puff something up (like pride), and flat bread was used as an offering, I thought it was important to know which kind of bread featured in the baker's dream. Can you guess?
I looked up the Hebrew word used for bread and discovered that actually there was no word for bread. The bread was implied and used in the translation, but was not used in the original. Originally, the baker filled his basket with "deeds". When translated, his deeds were assumed to be bread (I guess it follows since he was a baker). As I mentioned above, the fact that the baskets were white may imply that the bread they were filled with was white too, although this is speculative. I also did a little research on the kinds of bread that ancient Egyptian bakers made - and discovered that they often shaped it into a crocodile. This led to the discovery that Sobek bread is so-called after the Egyptian crocodile god Sobek because the pull-apart bread buns resemble a bumpy crocodile's back - so I made sure to include a 6-pack bread bun in the basket.
Having grown up on a farm with an orchard, I knew that grapevines are grown on a trellis, with branches being trained to grow opposite each other in straight lines. So when I envisioned how to draw a vine for the butler's dream, it quickly occurred to me that this vine was growing in the shape of a cross! Imagine a smaller grapevine growing on the trellis below - it has only reached the second wire and the branches being trained on the first wire are still quite short.
Image Source - Grape Vine Trellis by Deep Green Permaculture
Even after these discoveries it still took me a little while to understand properly, and I'll admit a little googling did help. There was bread and there was wine, a cross-shaped vine and death on a tree... but what exactly was the hidden story in the dreams?
Herein is the answer:
1. The butler's dream represents FAITH in the saving blood of Jesus
2. The baker's dream represents WORKS because he relies on his own deeds
The results are not realised until the third day, which is also no accident. Of course Jesus rose on the third day, but I think this relates more to the Millennial Day Theory - where each day of creation represents a thousand years of Earth's history. I have given a summary of what I think the days represent in the devotional on my Genesis 1 - Days of Creation Quiet Book Page. The death of Jesus happens toward the end of the fourth millennium, and this seems to start a second way of counting the days. You can either count from one to seven, or you can count from one to four and then start again from four and count another three days. I believe this is what Hosea 6:2 is referring to "After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence." Three millennial days after Messiah's death on day 4 will be the resurrection and restoration. And this is prefigured by Pharaoh's birthday gesture to the butler on the third day - he lifts up his face and restores him to his former position. Of course, those who rely on their deeds will be destroyed just as the butler was by Pharaoh also on the third day.
Concept drawing
The fact that it was Pharaoh's birthday is also interesting, although it was likely his inauguration/rebirth day which was shared by all Pharaohs and not a birthday as we would celebrate.
There is a Jewish tradition that a groom is a king for his wedding day (and the bride a queen). Whilst many Jews did not recognise Jesus as the Messiah at His first coming, Christians believe this may be because He came the first time as the Suffering Servant (similar to the Jewish Messiah ben Joseph - see Isaiah 53 - Messiah ben Joseph Quiet Book Page) and will not show Himself to be King Messiah (Messiah ben David) until the second coming - just like the story of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph did not reveal his true identity until the brother's second visit to Egypt. We believe that Jesus will be crowned King around the time of the Second Coming, and this concept is also portrayed in the story of the Song of Songs where Solomon is crowned king on the day of his wedding (Song of Songs 3:11).
Who would have imagined that the age-old debate of faith versus works would be found explained in the book of Genesis?!! Like the butler, I definitely choose faith in the blood of Jesus rather than relying on my yeast-filled deeds like the baker.
