Last night I spent two and a half hours creating felt pieces for Eric Carle’s The Very Quiet Cricket.  I went to bed at 10:30 feeling pretty darn proud of myself, because they turned out really well.

But this morning, when I tried to pack up the felt pieces for travel to the library, I discovered a minor crisis.  A bit of a disaster.  Despite having had all night to dry, the glue was still fresh and wet this morning.  Ever tried to put a delicate felt praying mantis on the board when the glue is still wet?  Not a pretty sight.

I tried to manage the crisis by putting each felt figure on a fresh rectangle of felt, to help hold it together, and then I used parchment paper as a protective layer between each piece and its neighbor. 

The real challenge will come this morning as I try to tell the story while treating each piece as if it’s about to fall apart. 

*  (I know that someone is bound to lecture me now on the benefits of a hot glue gun, but there are a lot of reasons why I prefer Elmer’s white glue to a glue gun.  And up till now, it’s never been an issue.  Sigh.)