An Exciting Purchase, a Tragedy, and a Bit of Sewing

I cannot believe that it has been almost a month since my last post!  I have had every intention of posting before now, but a lot has gone on in the past few weeks to prevent me from having time to do so.  I must say that it is good to be posting again!

Before sharing my most recent project please allow me to share a few things with you that have happened recently.  Firstly, I decided that it was time to upgrade my vehicle to something newer.  About a month ago, April 29 to be exact, I bought a used 2011 Kia Soul Sport from Auction Direct in Raleigh.  Jeremy was helping me search for vehicles and found this one at one of the stores in New York.  It was a great deal and I just could not let this car slip away from me so I paid for the transfer to Raleigh and ended up with a car payment for a few years.  Take a look at it...

I love how sporty looking it is!  It is a fun car that my sales person said looked as if it is ready for a party.  Check out the interior, which is probably my favorite part.

It has leather heated seats, a sunroof, cargo net, cargo storage liner, sports pedals, and lights around the door speakers that change colors.  This car is meant to be driven at night in an urban environment.  I will enjoy it for a long time.  Just to fill you in on my pugly little friends, they have taken a few rides in it already and they seem to be much happier being able to see where we're going without any effort at all.

The night after I made this purchase I received an emergency call from my mother.  She informed me that my sister-in-law had passed away due to complications with her pregnancy.  Her name was Chante and she was approaching her 31st birthday on June 9.  She had difficulties due to fibroids on her uterus during the four months of her pregnancy.  Several weeks prior to her death she had to be given 3 units of blood due to a massive loss of blood caused by a tear in the fibroid.  She and my brother were on the couch in their home in Panama City, FL the night she passed away.  According to the autopsy report she died from a blood clot from all the bleeding out she had been enduring.

This trip wasn't the first trip I had in mind for my new car, but I ended up driving to Dublin, GA and staying with my family for about a week.  While there, I pretty much helped my mom maintain as much order as possible in her home.  It was very difficult seeing my brother, my mother, Chante's mother, and her sister so upset.  I cannot even imagine how it must feel for them.  Jeremy and I are also bothered by the loss of Chante.  She was our friend and we always enjoyed seeing her when home for the holidays.  I will miss her texting me just to say hi.  Here's the only photo I ever took of her.

Forgive me if the above news made you sad.  I simply wanted to let you all know what's been going on.  Not that we're all caught up, how about we get back to the fun stuff?!

Several weeks ago I came across a tutorial for a quilt block known as a Dresden Plate.  I thought that it looked pretty nifty and since it involved applique (the owl quilt from a while back was also appliqued) I thought it would be a fun little challenge.  I decided to make mine into a pillow and of course it had to have green in it!  Without further adieu, here's the finished product.  Let me know what you think! 

Well, I guess that's it for now.  Have a great weekend!!  And remember to wag more and bark less.