turning 4

My Penelope is turning 4 on Sunday!  I can't believe it!  It feels like it was just yesterday that she was this little peanut.  :)

I have never carried a baby to term, my body just doesn't seem able to.  I have been so lucky to have had 3 healthy girls!  This one scared us the most.  She had trouble breathing when she was born because her lungs weren't quite ready so they had to sedate her for a whole week.  I didn't get to see her until the day after she was born because they had to rush her to children's hospital in Boston.  I pitched a little fit and they let me out for a few hours to go see her the next day.  She finally woke up and they took out most of the tubes that were in her little body and moved her back to the hospital where I was.  I went home for one night, that night she stopped breathing for a minute.  I stayed at the hospital after that!!  She has been healthy ever since!!!

man I look tired!!  :)

Ok, enough background!!  :)  I had to make my birthday girl some fun presents!!  I got this print in the shop a while ago and knew exactly what I wanted to make with it!!  I had seen this neat tutorial when it first came out and had been waiting until I felt the need to make one!  :)  My little girls also love dolls so I knew I had to make her a dolly.  The head keeps falling off of her old one and I am getting a little tired of sewing it back on!  

The tutorial calls for upholstery weight fabric but since I had a quilting cotton print that I wanted to use, I placed a layer of white kona in between the printed cotton and the flannel.  Then when I cut into the flannel, I made sure not to cut the kona as well.  I figured that would give the stitches a little more stability, which is why I think upholstery weight was recommended in the tutorial.  

I bought one of these nifty chenille cutters and it made the process of cutting the layers of flannel a lot easier than if I had used scissors.  It was still really physical, I ended up with 2 bruises on my hand from pushing the cutter through the channels.  The binding was also a lot harder to sew onto the back because of having to get through all 3 layers of flannel.  Does that mean that sewing counts as exercise!!??  ;)

This is after washing it!  It is so soft and fluffy!