Ava's Quiet Book

6/7  Miss Ava, my granddaughter, is turning one next month and since I made her sister a quiet book for her first birthday and personalized it so that it was unique and "just hers", I am about to embark on a second adventure.  To see the first one, here's your LINK.  It likely has more construction pictures and info than this one as, well, this is round two.

Apparently you CAN teach an old dog new tricks because I learned a LOT the last time.  I will not start out by doing a couple pages at a time.  Each step will be completed for all pages at the same time.  Now where to start?

Out to the studio I go.  Do I have enough solid fabric stored?  YES!!!  Wohoo -- a little happy dance here.  That's my big step forward for today.  I have a grandson visiting and limited time.



6/8  Able to steal away a few precious moments today, I cut the background pages and draw all the pattern pages.  Once again, I have some of my own ideas but Pinterest comes to the rescue too.  I will say that through these projects I scribble better than before.  If you are interested in doing one of these, I also think coloring book pages would be great patterns.

16th -  It's be a week of crazy busy travel and I wasn't able to get back to this until today.  It has now moved to priority number one.  Well at least I'm saying that today.  First step is to go out to the studio and find the tote that all my felt, buttons, snaps, velcro, and anything else I'll need is.  I need to start cutting.

Never let it be said that I can't make messes with the best of them.  The den has been taken over by felt.  It is EVERYWHERE.  My sweetheart walks by and just shakes his head.

I do manage to get quite a few pages cut out, but it's only a small dent in the pattern pile.  By the time I cut out the patterns, draw them onto the felt, and cut the felt -- it's a multi-stage, time-consuming process.  I LOVE it though.

6/20  I have a few minutes to try and make sense of the parts I have already cut out AND cut a couple more pages.  I am now halfway there on pages -- well almost.  And, yes, the mess has now taken another room as it's victim.  No, the mess in the den is not still there after all this time, it moved to the living room.  Now the dining area.

 6/21 - My house is currently devoid of grands.  It won't last long thus I am spending my evening cutting parts for more pages.

For those of you who are background savvy -- yep, now I have the kitchen table covered.  Felt, felt, felt.

6/23  Yesterday (no camera) and today are spent cutting still more parts.  I am beginning to think they are never ending.  Netflix is going along with my pen and scissors.  Some pages were just ideas in my head and I'm winging the parts as I go.  I had a general outline drawn and then -- whoosh -- give me a pen and watch me go.  (Yes, no camera yesterday and a blurry one today - apologies given.)

The eyes are a bit tricky but I think they'll turn out okay.  Well if they don't -- she's only one right?

6/24  I have three grands arriving from Colorado tonight so most of my day is spent preparing the house BUT I do manage to finish cutting out all the parts that I can and stacking the whole mess in one spot.

7/5  Whew!  What a whirlwind of activity the past 10 days have been.  I have not had a chance to get back to this until now.  Grandpa is in charge this evening so I sneak away to cut out the front and back page parts.  They are not included in the 20 "DO" pages.  I have a little sewing area in the living room since the boys have been spending some time at the machine too.  Task accomplished.

7/9  The boys are gone.  I fly on the 18th.  This book is a long way from being done.  Time to buckle down.  Background pages are cut for the front and back and everything trimmed down and placed on them.  The batting for between the pages gets cut.  We are off to drive halfway to Abilene to pick up another grandson and on the way I finally get to DO my first stitches.  Woot woot.  I begin work with crust, sauce, and mushrooms for the pizza page.

7/10  It's another fly day but last night I kitted up lots of little parts to sew together while in the air.  As soon as we take off, my bag is out and away I go.  My grandson sleeps all the way to Boston, but I feel as though I managed to get halfway through my colorful baggie.  Now to go play in Boston.

7/12  After two fun-filled days in Boston, it's up, up, and away again for me.  The baggie is out again and I am trying to see if I can have everything in it finished by the time we land.  I don't quite make it but have definitely put a good dent in the stack of parts.

Once home, I settle into a chair to relax and finish everything that I had taken with me so that I can honestly say I am on schedule.

Oh, the tiny chocolate chips about drove me nuts sewing them on.  FYI

7/15  No kids in the house so my camera went to sleep for a couple of days, but I certainly didn't.  Here is proof that even if I wasn't completing parts -- I was certainly making a mess.

Oh my.  My poor sweet OCD man barely moves through the house this week so as not to have to look at it.

Even my desk has been taken over as I try to spend some time with Mister.  Besides, I can watch a show AND handstitch.  I've mastered it.

I have been focusing on stitching everything that needed to be appliqued onto the background.  Success has been achieved and a trip out to the studio, two hours, and a lot of thread allows me to state that the pages themselves are ready for the next step.  At this point I need to move ahead even though I still have some loose parts to finish up.  I put the pages together with the batting inside and pin.  They are ready for binding  Once stacked up -- it's an impressive of pages.

7/16  Oh gosh --- the clock is just zooming around each day.  Will I get this done?  Only by staying crazy focused.  This morning's task is to create a mountain of binding and then apply it to my pages that are standing by.  At this point I crawl into a chair and start hand stitching the binding down.  As each page finishes, my sweetheart and KING OF THE GROMMET TOOL, takes over to put the grommets in.  I couldn't ever get through these projects without his help.

7/17  I't s book.  I have sewn the velcro onto the closure and put the rings in.  Almost Finished.  I say almost because I still have a few inside parts to work on.  Monkeys and a cell phone.

I manage to get the cell phone done this evening but that's it.  The monkeys get kitted up and will be my plane project tomorrow morning.  For now, I need to pack.

7/18  Oh goodness but it is early.  Did I sleep?  Within moments of take-off, my little baggie of monkey parts is out to be finished.

Mission accomplished and this book is ready to gift.  Whew.

Before I left home, my sweetheart did a video to show how the book works (yes with incomplete monkeys).  If you wish to see it, please click this VIDEO LINK.  It even has music.

Now, presenting Ava's Quiet Book

7/21 -- Happy Birthday Ava -- Here are a few pics of present opening time -- with some help from big Sis Ophelia.

 Big Sis wants to play with it right now!  Yay.

And another check mark for me.  Whew.  Thanks for peeking in on this adventure.