At last, I have another quiet book pattern for you! I got a little bit carried away on the details of this one, as I did everything but the veggies while on vacation at the beach. Feel free to simplify things wherever you need to.

Someone on the Facebook page suggested I do a farmer’s market page, and I loved the idea! I thought it was a great way to feature vegetables. Jax recently fell in love with this classic Sesame Street song from a sing-along DVD we got at the thrift store, so was is perfect timing.

This page features sorting and matching. I also added some seed packet buttons I found at the thrift store. (I’d originally planned to make potatoes, but when I realized all but one of my veggies matched the buttons, I switched to a super cute turnip!) They have the veggie names so Jax can read them when he gets older. Right now he just tells me the letters he sees. The seed buttons are no longer sold, though I did see some on Etsy.

All of the bins and baskets have green Velcro (the soft loop side) for the green inside part. I used Babyville hook & loop tape I bought at Joann’s fabric store. I didn’t use the hook side. I find that the hook side of Velcro ruins felt when you pull it off. Instead, I used snag-free Velcro on the back of my veggies. While they don’t stick quite as strong to the loop unless you press down, they do zero damage to the page or the other veggies!

What I used: The pattern, background felt in sky blue and olive green, felt (in natural, tan, 2 browns, red, orange, yellow, 4 greens, purple, violet and white), thin green gingham ribbon, tiny olive green ric-rac, varigated green ric-rac, seed packet buttons and wood tags (that I painted to have the matching veggie shown.)

Background, Sign & Large Basket: I pinned olive green down to my sky blue background. Once all the baskets were sewn down, I went back and sewed down the exposed edges of the olive green. For the sign, I sewed down all the yellow letters to the green backing, then outlined them with a back stitch in dark brown. For the large basket, I cut scrap strips of natural felt and wove them together a little larger than the basket shape. I pinned it together and trimmed the woven strips to fit, then sewed it all down to the page. I cut the green Velcro (loop side) into the basket top shape and sewed it down.

Vegetable Bins & Baskets: For the top baskets I cut three shapes for each. One was the base, one was cut into horizontal strips and one cut into vertical strips. I woven and sewed down the baskets the same way I did the large one. When I sewed them to the page, I let them puff up a bit to give a rounded shape. The tops are green loop Velcro.

For the middle bins, I laid down the tan backing piece, then the brown inner shadow piece, then the Velcro top piece and then finally three tan wood slats and pinned everything down. I used 2 French knots at each end of the wood slats, then did a running stitch across the top and bottoms. I did more running stitch around the top of the bin’s backing, then sewed down the Velcro.

For the bottom barrels I sewed down the barrel and the Velcro. I did a back stitch following the curve of the Velcro to make the lip of the barrel. I did a stem stitch to make the barrel’s slats. A back stitch would work well too.

I used plain wooden tags that I painted with craft acrylics as labels, sewing them on with loops of ribbon. If you have printable fabric, you could make tags that way to avoid painting.

Carrots: I decorated both sides with long, horizontal stitches in an orange-brown thread and sewed snag-free Velcro to one side. I sewed the two sides together with bits of tiny ric-rac sticking out of the top. I got my ric-rac at the craft store in the $1 trim bin.

Peapods: I sewed 3 peas down to one of the larger pod pieces and sewed snag-free Velcro to the other. I laid the smaller pod piece on top and sewed all three layers together around the edges. The top piece will become a little pocket.

Tomatoes: I sewed the green bits down to the fronts and snag-free Velcro to the backs before sewed them together.

Eggplants: I sewed snag-free Velcro to the backs of each eggplant, then sewed the purple pieces together. I layered the green tops around them and sewed them together as well.

Turnips: I sewed the violet tops to the white shapes then sewed snag-free to the backs. I sewed the front sand backs together with loops of variegated ric-rac sticking out of the top. That was also from the $1 trim bin.

Corn Cobs: I decorated my corn cobs with yellow seed beads. If your child will be playing with it unsupervised, I’d suggest skipping that step. For the corn silk, I tied a little bunch of cream-colored embroidery floss with a knot at the end. When I sewed the two sides of the corn ears together, I put the knot between them with the tassel stitching out of the top. I made sure to make a few stitches through the knot. I layered the green leaves over the bottoms of the ears and sewed them on. I sewed my snag-free Velcro on last, making sure to only go through the back layer.

For the seed packet buttons, I just sewed them on randomly by the big basket like they were laying out on the farmer’s market table.

I love this page! And I really love that all the little pieces use Velcro but don’t stick to each other or cause pulls in the felt. Jax knew just what to do when he sat down with the page. He knows all the veggies except the turnip. We’re working on that one!

“It’s a rainy, sunny day. The rainbow‘s here to play!”

Jax loves color and he really loves rainbows! It was inevitable that a rainbow page had to happen. It took a while for me to decide what exactly to do. My first thought was a rainbow stacker that comes out of a cloudy pocket. But, I’d need to make each ring 2 sheets of felt thick for strength… 6 x 2 = Way too thick for a quiet book page!! So I changed plans and made a rainbow puzzle.

The base of the puzzle is a ring. When you store it in the cloud pocket it looks like a rainbow. Along one section is a row of snaps. There are rainbow color puzzle pieces that snap on. Jax is not good with snaps yet, so this is good practice for him. (If you use Velcro, I recommend this snag-free version that won’t catch on your felt!) The puzzle pieces have pipe cleaners in them so they become playthings themselves.

What I used: The pattern, sky blue background felt, felt (in white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple), 6 snaps, several pipe cleaners and thread to match. I also made a little rainbow necklace as a little surprise inside one of the cloud pockets. I used pony beads from the thrift store.

Cloud Pockets: Sew the across the top of the two layers of felt on each cloud. I used sky blue thread. Pin the pockets onto your background felt and sew the sides and bottom down. I used a machine to go through all the layers quickly and neatly.

Puzzle Base: First sew half of a snap to each ring. (To find your snap placement, stack all the rings and mark a dot where you want it.) Pin the orange ring to one of the red rings and sew them together along the outside of the orange. Pin the yellow on top and sew it down the same way. Continue through the all the colors. Pin the red backing on to the back side and sew it together around the outside. Carefully trim the inner circle if needed to even it up. Using purple thread, sew through all the layers around the inner hole.

Puzzle Pieces: For each puzzle piece I prepared a length of pipe cleaner with the ends folded in twice to hide the pointy wire end. (You could also duct tape around the folder end to be extra careful.) I sewed the other half of the snaps to one side of each backing and free-hand stitched the color names to the fronts. Sew the fronts and backs together, inserting the pipe cleaners when they are halfway sewn.

I hope you enjoy this page! Please stop by the Facebook page and share your creation if you make it. You could change it up to be a ROY G BIV rainbow if you prefer.

Jax adores it! And, maybe it will save me from having to draw him eleventy billion rainbows a day… But, probably not!