Crafty Christmas, Part 1

One of my goals this Christmas was to try and make a lot of our gifts. I'm actually making about half of them, and a few others I'm picking up from other artists on Etsy. The one gift I've spent the most time on is the one I've made for my niece.

When my son was about one, my sister-in-law made him a Quiet Book. It was such a great gift, that I decided I would come up with my own. So I took the one she made, plus a lot of examples I found online from googling "Quiet Book," and came up with my own set of pages.

This gift was truly a labor of love. I had no pattern, no instructions for putting it together. Just pictures and my son's book (which was put together differently than what I ended up doing). I sketched stuff up on paper and did a "mock up" to figure out how I was going to assemble it all. I know there are people who make and sell these, and my hat is off to you. I just don't know that I could do it and make it profitable....I'd have to charge $35 + a kidney to account for the housework that didn't get done while working on this!

I "super" sewed everything down to make sure no little choking hazards would come off...even used heavy-duty upholstery thread to secure the buttons. I tried to cover several different activities on my pages: textures, counting, zipping, buttoning, velcro, "peek-a-boo," and "I Spy" to name a few. I hope she likes it. I will be making one for my nephew too when he gets old enough to play with it (hmmm....first birthday gift.)

I also picked up a few injuries on this project: I sewed my finger (not the first time I've done this. Once, the needle went through my finger and stopped....and I had to turn the hand wheel to get it out), I cut myself with the rotary cutter, and I stuck a pin into the heel of my hand. Guess I shouldn't sew while drinking tired.