Genesis 26 - The Kiss (She is my Sister III) Quiet Book Page

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:

• A4 felt background sheet - I used light blue
• sewing thread to best match the page
• my free Genesis 26 - The Kiss (She is my Sister III) Bible Quiet Book Template Pattern 
• 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

Read the Chapter

Genesis 26

Devotional

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.

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How did my re-imagined "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimt go? 

Genesis 3 - The Fall of Adam and Eve Quiet Book Page

In Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Memory Verse: Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Genesis 3:1

Materials needed to create The Fall of Adam and Eve quiet book page:

• A4 felt background sheet. I used sky blue.
• felt scraps
• sewing thread to match
• fabric paint (optional)
• sew on press studs
• a pipe cleaner
• two black seed beads
• thin ribbon scrap
• a tree of the knowledge good and evil template - I used this wall hanging from Wee Folk Art
• a tree of life template - I used the Autumn Oak Applique pattern also from Wee Folk Art
• a printer / scanner
• a laminator and lamination sheets or iron on transfer paper/sublimation printing and white stiffened felt

Image Source

For the Adam and Eve finger puppets, I used the workbook Bible Stories by Twin Sisters Productions, 2005. I printed and cut out around the outside of the puppets, but left the finger holes uncut, then laminated them. After laminating, I cut around each finger puppet again, and cut out the finger holes. I used a single craft hole punch to make a hole in the finger slots so I could get the scissors in. If you want them made from felt, you could use transfer paper and white stiffened felt, or have them sublimation printed onto felt and then back them with stiffened felt.

On your background sheet, arrange some green felt in the foreground to make grass and sew down.

Cut out a double layer of darker green felt in the shape of a bush. Decorate one piece with fabric paint flowers (or use flower buttons etc). Sew one side of two press studs to the back of the bush piece so they will fit between the finger holes of the finger puppets. Sew the two bush pieces together. Then sew the bush down in about the middle of the foreground along the bottom edge. Sew the other half of the two press studs to the background sheet so they line up with their respective studs on the bush. This is how you will store the finger puppets and stop them falling out of the quiet book when not in use.

Print and cut out your tree templates. You may have to reduce the size to make sure it fits to your page (sorry I can't remember whether I did or not as I made this page quite a while ago). I definitely reduced the size of the tree of life template so I could create a peek-a-boo flap. I didn't want the tree of life to seem boring compared to the tree of knowledge of good and evil! I just used one of the sections but straightened out one edge and turned it upside down. Use doubled felt for the flaps to strengthen them. Sew fruit down underneath the flaps.

For the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, sew down your leaf sections first. Double the felt for the trunk and sew it down to the page along the trunk and outer tips of the branches. This way you can weave the snake in and out.

The snake was made by sewing a circle of brown felt folded back and forth between two thin strips of felt. I inserted a ribbon at the end for a tongue. Before sewing together completely at the opposite end, I inserted a pipe cleaner to allow the snake to bend and keep it's shape. It was difficult to get the pipe cleaner past the frill, but I got it eventually. Sew on two black seed beads for the eyes.

Finished!

Difficulty Level = Difficult

The snake was quite difficult as I wanted it to be thin - which made inserting the pipe cleaner hard. You could simplify it by leaving off the winged frill on the snake, using a small toy snake, or making this Pipe Cleaner Craft: Beaded Snake by Kids Activities instead. If I had found this idea before making the snake I might have saved myself a fair bit of bother.

Key Learning Areas and Skills

• Genesis 3 - This page tells the story of how sin entered the world
• Imaginative Play - our Adam and Eve like to play peek-a-boo
• Press Studs - apples and Adam and Eve get held behind the bush for storage with press studs
• Finger Puppets - your fingers are Adam and Eve's legs!
• Peek-a-boo - lift the flap to discover fruit on the Tree of Life
• Weaving - the snake can be woven through the branches of the tree of knowledge of good and evil
• Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
• Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination

Eve giving Adam the apple...

Read the Chapter

Genesis 3

Devotional

The first lie is still believed today. No-one wants to think they are going to die forever. The snake said "you shall not surely die" but God said "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life" (Romans 6:23). The gift is only given to the righteous. The dead know not anything (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

It is a misnomer that the righteous go to Heaven when they die. The righteous go to Heaven after the resurrection, when Jesus returns with His reward (Isaiah 40:10, Revelation 22:12). Heaven is not the reward - He is not bringing Heaven with Him. Eternal life is. Until then, Jesus refers to the dead as 'sleeping'. The belief in immediate Heaven and Hell following death entered the church with the conversion of Gentile (often Greek) people who brought their ideas from Greek mythology with them.

It would be unjust for punishment to precede judgement - and God will leave no avenue open for Satan to appeal against His justice system.

Adam and Eve - Song for the Kids

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Psalm 58 - Snail Quiet Book Page

In Psalm 58, David asks God to make the wicked like snails that melt away as they go along!

Memory Verse: "May they [the wicked] be like snails that dissolve into slime" Psalm 58:8a

Materials needed to create the Snail quiet book page:

• A4 felt background sheet. I used sky blue.
• felt scraps
• rik rak
• sheer printed organza or other colourful sheer material
• embroidered flower motifs or other hide-able object
• glass stone or marble, button, bead etc
• sewing threads to match 
• this snail colouring page from Coloring Pages for Kids (and a printer)

On your background sheet, arrange some green felt in the foreground to make grass and sew down.

Cut out a double layer of the same green felt in the shape of a bush. Sew the two bush pieces back to back. Then sew them down along the right top edge of the grass, ensuring you leave enough room to fit the snail along the rest of the grass.

Fold back the bush and sew/iron on your motif underneath.

Print and cut out your snail colouring page and use as a template. If you need a more detailed explanation, you could read how I used a colouring page as a template in my post on Jacob's Ladder.

Cut out the snail body and sew down, then add the eye pieces on top.

Measure how much rik rak you need by laying it over the snail outline. Cut a little extra to tuck underneath at each end. Melt the ends with a match so they don't fray.

Lay your organza or sheer fabric over the area where the snail shell will be. Pin your rik rak down in a spiral pattern over the top and slip in a glass stone or other item underneath the organza. Make sure there is enough room to move the stone around while it is still pinned. That way you can adjust it before sewing if needed. I started from the outside edge and went in towards the middle, then turned around a stitched all the way back out again. That will help to make it tough and be able to withstand being played with. Then trim the organza back.

Finished!

Difficulty Level = Intermediate

The tricky part is lining up the rik rak. Also, make sure you cut out the snail shape after sewing it down and not before - I had to re-do it as I missed catching a section and there was a hole that the glass stone kept slipping out of.

This is Tahlia with her three pages of sewing on paper that we did after finishing the snail. She often sits on my lap while I sew and has been dying to test out the fancy stitches on the machine that I never use. So I let her.

Key Learning Areas and Skills

• Psalm 58 - This page tells about how ultimately the wicked will be like the snail - they will melt away and dissolve into slime!
• Imaginative Play - Garden play perhaps, imagine how big everything is when you are as small as a snail
• Button/stone/marble maze - push the stone around the track
• Shapes - learn all about spirals
• Peek-a-boo - lift the flap to reveal the (half) hidden flowers
• 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

Psalm 58

Devotional

All too often, those in authority use their power to take advantage of others. Sometimes they are scary and they scare people into obedience. Sometimes they seem too difficult to stand up to. I guess David knew how that felt. The king of Israel was supposed to be looking after God's sheep, but instead he was hunting one of them down to try to kill him. David.

In a way this verse reminds me of the story of the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz story.  She seems formidable until a simple bucket of water causes her great concern and she cries "I'm melting!" as she dissolves into nothing.

I guess my point is that the bucket of water is like a tiny bit of good or a tiny bit of faith. God and goodness are infinitely stronger than evil. In fact, wickedness is self-destructive. It cannot prevail against goodness.

This point was taken to heart by Desmond Tutu in his opposition to apartheid in South Africa. He knew he was on the winning side, because goodness always prevails in the end. Although living in a very volatile situation, he led his country to a war-less end to systematic racial discrimination and segregation, and advocated reconciliation through forgiveness. The country underwent a transition to democracy, and apartheid rule that had lasted over forty years was broken. It melted away because of goodness.

David had experience with that too. Everyone else could only see a giant problem when they looked at Goliath. But David knew that a little stone in the hands of faith could melt that problem. He trusted God to deal with his problems. Our problems might look insurmountable to us, but when you know how good and powerful God is, suddenly you have a way to dissolve them. Just ask Him.

“Good is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death. Victory is ours, through him who loves us.” Desmond Tutu.

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What would you like dissolved? Take it to the LORD in prayer and don't give up until He answers.

Genesis 8 - In The Ark Quiet Book Page

In Genesis chapter 8, the Flood recedes and Noah checks by sending out a raven and a dove through a window in the ark.

Memory Verse: "When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth." Genesis 8:11

Materials needed to create the In The Ark quiet book page:

• A4 felt background sheet, I used navy.
• felt scrap for pocket
• Betty Lukens Felt book 07 Noah's Ark available at Koorong.
• sewing thread to best match the page and pocket
• scissors!

Cut out all the pieces for this page, and the two ark pages from the set leaving as much margin as possible. You want enough to make it easy to sew back to back and also to leave a flap on the respective sides so you can sew it down to the page along that and it can flip open. The Betty Lukens FAQ section has posted a cutting tips PDF.

Cut out the three sides of the window and door so they can open. Hot glue (or sew) the pictures behind the window and door.

Sew the two pages back to back, sewing around the top along the shape of the ark. They should line up fairly well. Trim the excess, remembering to leave a flap down one side to sew it onto the page with so it flips open.

Make a pocket by folding down the top edge of a rectangular piece of felt and sewing along that edge to reinforce it. Then sew it onto the middle of the page where it will be hidden by the ark.

Sew the ark onto the page along the flap, going over it twice so it is strong.

Pop the pieces inside the pocket (or better yet, play with them)!

Finished!

Difficulty Level = Intermediate.

Double check everything when sewing the pages back to back and ensure you leave enough margin to form a flap for the ark to flip open.

Key Learning Areas and Skills

• Genesis 8 - This page tells the story of how the Flood receded and Noah tested this by sending out a raven and a dove through a window in the ark
• Imaginative Play - Open the window to let the raven and dove in and out.
• Matching - Check on the animals inside and match the pairs
• Peek-a-boo - open the window and door to see what is underneath
• 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

Genesis 8

Devotional

I always wondered what Noah and his family filled the ark with besides all the food they and the animals would need for a year or so. If I was planning a new life in a new world, what would I bring?
My sewing machine would be high on the list of wants, but how much good would it do me without electricity at the other end? Did they have items like this that they just had to leave behind because it would no longer be useful? I imagine they packed as much as they could to make setting up a new life as easy as possible.

I also imagined one of Noah's sons' wives being pregnant on the ark. When I was a child I guess I didn't consider things like sea sickness getting in the way of that, or the enormous amount of work looking after all those animals must have been. The first child to be born after the flood was born two years after the flood (Genesis 11:10). So I guess it didn't take them long to get organised enough to feel that getting pregnant was OK.

I recently had a dream where it was my family entering the ark, and as I was busily packing forgotten items, it suddenly hit me that all my debt was gone. I couldn't stop hugging my family and celebrating! In the morning there would be no more bank! I'm sure you can extrapolate this to mean Jesus paid our debts. But what really hit me was the physical debts gone. And that is also coming with Jesus' return. Money will become useless once again!

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What would you pack on the ark?

Vashti's Quiet Book - My Sister's Pages

These are the super cute quiet book pages that my sister made for her daughter Vashti!

A caterpillar...

There is a light green peek-a-boo leaf on the top...

And a pocket for the pieces behind the darker middle leaf...

A weather page... the cloud and hot air balloon basket are both pockets...

A rainbow page...

A sandcastle and bucket page - template from Imagine Our Life Sandcastle Quiet Book Page....

And lastly, some shoe laces to learn to tie... template from Pops and Podge Quiet Book Page 3 -  Tie The Laces...

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Which pages would you like to include in your own quiet book?

Up-cycled Clothes Quiet Book

After seeing this "Close Your Clothes" quiet book by Anna of Forty-Two Roads, I knew I had to feed my quiet book obsession and make one. Ok, two of them! This is my version, sans poem, and with a little Aussie flavour.

I made one book for Tahlia and one for my niece Vashti for this last Christmas. They are very similar but a little different in places, so I tried to put the related pages next to each other in the photos, although they are not in the same order in both books due to the page colours clashing.

I thought that a belt would be great for the cover as we could use it to keep the books shut.

These pages feature a bow tie that clips together at the back of the collar. You can lift the collar to put it on and then fold it back down once the tie has been clipped together.

These page features the all popular netball skirt. Netball is very popular in country areas of Australia. Netball skirts are wrap around skirts and are adjustable to to your particular waist size because they fasten using a rail belt slider and adjuster. I never knew what they were called until I started writing this post and had to find out!

These pages feature overall clips/buckles. They are not as common as they were in the Eighties lol

These pages feature press studs. The other activity for these pages is pulling the arms and legs inside out so they fit inside the book for storage (see below).

There are hidden bras behind the tops. One bra has a front clasp and the other has padding which can be rather easily removed and put back in.

The baby jumpsuit is located here so that the baby would have ready access to breastmilk :)

The center pages feature a button-up dress or skirt and hat clips.

These pages feature hook and eye closures. I guess this is not the book I will be taking along to church hahaha... lingerie might be better suited to the car or home!

These pages feature zips. I made sure to have them unsecured at the bottom so the girls could learn to thread the zip themselves.

These pages feature Chinese knot buttons. I think they turned out quite pretty.

The last pages feature lacing. One of the books received a bonus belt clip too. I did find it a little difficult finding two of everything I wanted to included, so the two books do vary slightly, but I think they are comparably exciting overall.


I bound the books using the Skinny version of How to Make Cloth Books described by Deborah from Cloth Books for Baby. It worked OK, but I think the bulkiness of my pages made it difficult. The method is better suited to pages without so much going on around the borders.

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Which is your favourite page in these books?