Cute cloth book idea

I'm a sucker for children's books.  Even better if they're cloth children's books.  I have created several from scratch, using ideas found in this book

"How to Make Cloth Books for children" by Anne Pellowski

I have also embellished books made from pre-printed panels, which is what made me gush over the cloth book I saw at STCA.

It's made from a counting panel (Ten Little Things, by Moda) and has both the number and the word for each number (in Spanish and French!) on each panel.

OhMyGoodness! Eight cute owl-ies!!

So there's a darling pattern sheet for making the panel into a cloth book, by sewing strips from a coordinating Moda jelly roll around each block.

"Ten Little Things" jellyroll by Moda

On each facing page, the designer used chalk cloth (who knew such a thing existed?)

But I can imagine other types of facing pages,

like this oversize paper-pieced ruler segment by Elizabeth Hartman from Oh, Fransson.  I was so in love with this when I saw it--wouldn't it go nicely on a children's counting book about numbers?

Or facing pages that involve the reader in doing something,

like "count the flowers as you take them out of the (pocket) basket and button them in place"

or "count the dishes as you lift up the flaps to reveal them".  Both these techniques have been used by me in a baby busy block cloth toy.


Of course, what really makes this particular project precious are the adorable details:  grommets, fancy ribbon to tie the pages together, and a zipper pocket in the (front to hold the chalk).

I also like cloth books that have a handle on them.  (I used to see them in the Lillian Vernon catalog, but can't seem to find any there now.)  That wouldn't be too hard a detail to add on.  Cute, cute, cute!!!

(For future reference, several websites have more cloth books for children ideas.  One nice starting place seems to be eHow.)