Tahlia's Quiet Book - Grapes, Butterfles, Bee and Potato Head Pages

These next quiet book pages form the major part of Tahlia's quiet book. Most of them were gifts made by other people to contribute to Tahlia's book.

The grapes and butterfly pages were made for Tahlia by my sister. At the time, grapes were one of her favourite foods. The string is meant to be a caterpillar and it can be threaded through the hole it has eaten in the leaf. The leaf pattern came from Purl Soho, and the grapes were drawn by my Mum. The butterfly was made using a colouring in sheet printed from the internet, and the cocoon and tree were drawn by my brother-in-law.

The butterfly racing page was made by my awesome friend!  The butterfly buttons on the ribbons came from an op shop.  There is no pattern for this one, but you could probably use something like this flower printed out in a few different sizes.

This page was made as an extra for Tahlia while we were making my friend a book at her baby shower.  It was made by my friend's mum.  Thanks heaps!  The bee came from a $2 shop.  The hive pattern was made by Stephanie from Imagine Our Life, and the flowers are from Purl Soho.

My Mum put in an amazing effort into helping me finish these pages.  We did Mr Potato Head about three times over for two friends books as well.  Thanks so much Mum!! The template was made by Jocelyn from Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows. The hats are reversible, some with a button on one side and not the other, and some with a patterned felt on the reverse. We also made two sets of eyes each, so there would be green, blue, brown and googly options.

I know the walking stick is meant to be a moustache, but this is for kids, right?

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Which page do you like the most out of these ones?

Tahlia's Quiet Book - Teddy Page

Here is another page my Mum and I made for Tahlia's original quiet book. I am including the free template so you can make one for someone special too!

This teddy was originally a full teddy that my Mum designed and had her primary school craft class make.  We cut him off at the shoulders and put a ribbon to learn to tie around his neck. This is proving to be a challenging task, but one that has been of interest to Tahlia for quite a while now. She undoes the bow very quickly, and then pretends to do it back up. She watches carefully as someone does it up for her.

We also made his ears able to flap, which I am so happy about because Tahlia has found that she can play peek-a-boo by covering his eyes with his ears!!

Since I got the idea of making quiet books around the time of my friend's baby shower, I decided we should make her one at the party.................... Right.................... Probably not a good idea. Mum and I had to finish off a lot of pages. Actually we were making two of each page at that party since my friend's sister was also planning a baby. So, along with a few others, Mum and I made this page three times, phew!

The other teddies we made had blue and green eyes. Tahlia ended up with the pink ones because she was the only baby with a known sex at the time. They all ended up being girls though! Anyway, I'd like to teach her about having 'pink eye' and how to treat it with pretend eye drops. We could get some real imaginary play going on at the vet or doctor's clinic.

Materials needed to create the Teddy Quiet Book Page:

• A4 felt background sheet in cream
• felt scraps in tan
• ribbon
• black wool
• black thread
• two large buttons
• my Mum's teddy template... Thanks Mum!

How to create the Teddy Quiet Book Page:

• Cut out each ear twice and sew together to strengthen.
• Cut a length of ribbon and burn the ends to stop it fraying.
• Cut out the head and body section and pin in place with the ribbon and ears positioned underneath. Sew down.
• Mum embroidered his mouth and nose for me with some black wool.
• Attach the eyes with black thread.

All Done!

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Do you like Teddy pages?

Genesis 29 - Jacob's Wives Quiet Book Page

In Genesis chapter 29, Jacob has run away from his brother Esau and gone to his mother's family to find a wife. After agreeing to work seven years in exchange for the younger, more beautiful daughter Rachel, he is tricked into marrying the elder daughter Leah, and must work a further seven years to pay for Rachel. Leah bears Jacob four sons.

Memory Verse: When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?” Genesis 29:25.

Materials needed to create Jacob's Wives quiet book page:

• A4 felt background sheet. I used mid blue.
• felt scraps
• sewing thread to match each colour of felt
• sew on press studs
• material or lace for the veils
• two small blue beads and four small brown or black beads
• embroidered flowers, I got a fairly big bag full for $1 from Theo's Discount Craft in Melbourne
• hot glue gun and glue sticks
• the template

Use the template to cut out the pieces from felt in appropriate colours. I used purple for Leah because she was the mother of Judah, through whom the royal line of King David, and thus Jesus, descended. I gave her blonde hair and blue eyes, and gave Rachel brown hair and eyes for reasons outlined in the devotional section. I used the darker shades for Leah and Rachel and used lighter shades of the same colours for Bilhah and Zilpah in the next chapter, so you might want to keep that in mind if you are doing a double page spread like me. Jacob was allocated red clothes because that's what I had already given him in the previous chapter, Genesis 28 - Jacob's Ladder Quiet Book Page.

Next, lay out your pieces and position everything on the page so you know where you want everything and to make sure it fits on your page. Pin so you can peel back as many layers as possible to sew underneath. Make sure you leave enough room for the son's names labels if you are using them.

For details on how I made the son's names labels with press studs, please refer to my Genesis 30 - Jacob Increases Quiet Book Page. Only do this part if you are making a double page spread with these two chapters.

Sew each piece down in the order listed below, matching your threads to your chosen colours.

1. large hair sections for Leah and Rachel
2. torso/arm sections - remember to insert the girl's dresses underneath the arms and on top of the torsos before sewing
   
3. heads and feet
4. dresses and tunic
5. rest of the hair pieces

Cut two sections of material or lace for the veils and sew them on. Then add the beads for eyes. Finally, hot glue down your embroidered flowers over the spot where the girls hands meet.

Finished!

Difficulty Level = Intermediate

Sewing Leah and Rachel's arms is the most difficult part of this page because they need to be sewn over the top of the dress before it has been sewn down yet, and you may get issues with lining them up properly. It wasn't as hard as I thought it might be though!

Key Learning Areas and Skills

• Genesis 29 - this page tells the story of Jacob marrying Leah and Rachel
• Visual Discrimination - spot the difference between Leah and Rachel
• Peek-a-boo - lift the veils to see their faces
• Press Studs - learn to line them up, push them on and pull them off
• 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 29

Devotional

In this chapter, Jacob the deceiver - his name actually means that, gets deceived himself. He gets tricked into marrying the wrong woman... not a nice surprise I imagine. I had thought that he actually had to wait another seven years to marry his beloved Rachel, but it turns out he married her the next week, and had to pay her off for the next seven years.

For some reason, Jacob actually looks quite puzzled and cross standing next to Leah, but when you compare the shot of him standing with Rachel, he looks quite happy. I think it might be due to some body language caused by the one-shouldered tunic... What do you think?

Anyway, I drew their tunic and dresses with one shoulder because that is how they are depicted in ancient records. See the example below:

Image Source

Verse seventeen talks about Leah having weak eyes, but Rachel being both beautiful and having a hot body! There are two theories I have come across regarding Leah's weak eyes. The first says that she had blue eyes, which were considered weak and unattractive in that culture, where brown eyes were dominant. The other theory says that Leah's blue eyes were her only redeeming feature. She was perhaps blessed with a fertile, child rearing body... not a hot bod, and was not beautiful, and the only nice thing they could say about her was that she at least had nice eyes.

Interesting!

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Are the veils in this page captivating enough for your child?