Soft Book for Babies

I needed a special baby gift.  I saw something similar to this in a magazine, so it was off to my work-table to design my own version.  Out came the scrap bag--I needed 16 different 2 1/2" squares in eight color families:  black/white, brown, red, purple, blue, green, yellow and orange.  I used a vivid multi-colored stripe for the outer cover and a crayon-drawing print for the inner cover.  Since all the fabrics were prewashed and all cotton, the finished book will be baby-safe.

I made eight 16-patch blocks that finished 8 1/2" inches.  I layered them with fusible cotton batting, stacked them carefully in the order I wanted them, and sewed up the center to make a total of 4 fat, soft pages. (Think of each page set as a two-sided mini-quilt.)  Each page features squares in the same color family.  I tried to fussy-cut as many squares as possible with simple images to add another layer of interest to each page.  I can just imagine playing "I Spy" with a toddler with this book.

Notice that I still have to sew up the opening I left in the cover for turning.  A few quick mattress stitches will do the trick.  You can see the flat, unbatted spine of the book in this photo.

The cover required just a bit of engineering.  I cut the outer and inner covers to extend around the page ends;  layered and quilted them.  But instead of using one piece of batting, I used two squares and left a generous half-inch unbatted in the center of the cover.  This makes a nice spine for the book.  I quilted the outer cover with a simple channel outline about an inch and a half in from the edges to keep the batting in place.  I've posted some pictures--I didn't photograph the blue or purple pages which are in the center of the book.