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The Quiet Book Swap of '09 is officially a success! I can't even believe how well it went. First a thanks to all the lovely ladies who participated:
Emily
Megan
Lisa (private)
Mellissa
Angie
Natalie (private)
Deanna
Nicole
Becky
This project was only as successful as our weakest link and thank goodness that we had no weak links. These women did everything I asked them to do, and more. Thank you thank you thank you!
Would I do this again? Absolutely. I might change a couple of things, but for the most part, it ran really smoothly. I was able to get everything on my end finished before the other ladies' pages starting arriving. This meant that as they arrived, I could put them together and then the final product took no time at all. The biggest oops on my part was underestimating the cost of shipping, meaning I was in the red at the end. Also, I would have made the books smaller, maybe 9" x 9" instead of the 10.5" x 10". Why? The binding around the covers of the book needed slightly more fabric than one regularly-sized piece of cotton gives. This meant that I had to piece together each binding and that was a pain. Had I done them in a 9" x 9" size, the circumference would be 36", totally doable with a 42"-wide piece of fabric. When I think about what could have been (non-payers, horrible pages, etc.), I feel really lucky!
How could I not do it again? It was a fairly painless process with an absolutely-worth-it outcome. It's a no-brainer. I hope that the women who participated feel the same way.
Without further delay, the finished pages:
And all bound on the front and back by two identical pages looking like this:
I'm sending an email to those of you who expressed interest in participating in the Quiet Book Swap. Please let me know if you didn't get it. Also, if you'd like to join us, let me know by TODAY (Monday, July 6, 2009).
I'd like to make a quiet activity book for Rhett for Christmas (it's only six months away people!). But the thought of doing everything by myself is quite daunting. Then it hit me (things often do and most of the time Chuck isn't throwing them). Why not do a quiet book swap?
This is how I see it happening. People comment on this post and tell me they'd like to participate (emily, you're already in, so deal with it). I'll send the basic felt for the pages to each swap participant so that each book is uniform in size and basic material. The participants will design one page; I'll assign which "activity" should be highlighted on their page. Then, participants will make up to 10, or however many people want to participate, of their page using their own fabric and embellishments. At the pre-determined end of the swap, the participants send me their 10 pages, I'll put the books together, and then I'll mail them out to everyone! Voila!
Some ideas I came up with for the "activities" are:
Lacing
Buttons
Braiding
Tieing
Buckling
Zipping
Telling time
Writing a note
Snapping
Pockets
I know some of you will be concerned with your ability to complete such a project. I think that this won't be that hard and, really, there is no expectation for greatness. It's just a great idea (humble, ain't I?) to be able to share something handmade with a special little person. Addendum: After reading Meg's comment, I concur with her about this definitely being a sewing project. Not only am I concerned about the life of these sweet books, but I am certainly concerned about pieces coming unattached and becoming choking hazards. If you don't have a sewing machine, either find someone who does, commit to hand sew these objects, or wait for another fun swap. Hope that's not too harsh. :)
So what do you think? Would anyone be interested? If so, do you have any other "activities" you'd like to see or not like to see? Would those interested still be interested if I asked for money (probably around $10) to reimburse me for the cost of the felt and mailings? What is the largest number of pages you'd be willing to make? How long do you think would be an appropriate time for you to make your pages?
Of course there are some details to be worked out, but I think it could work. It has to work! Think about how fun for your favorite little one to have something made by so many lovely hands from all over the country. SO FUN. And $10 for a handmade quiet book? Not possible anywhere else. If you have friends that you think would be interested, please send them a link to this post. I'll make a decision by the end of the week.
If you want to see some examples of books and book pages, look here, here, here, or here. The internet has tons of different images and books for you to copy.
And P.S., don't forget to read our Saturday post about last week's return to full-time work for me. That's right: our post; I got Chuck to post his thoughts about being Mr. Mom.
