Wanna Trade? Well, Yeah!

Social media is an amazing thing. I’m connected to people all over the world who make really amazingly beautiful things. And they really appreciate the things other people half way around the world make too.

Last week, after I commented on her post, someone I follow on Instagram asked if I wanted to trade something she made for something I made. Well, of course, my answer  was an immediate YES! And other than telling her what colors I like, she’s got free rein. And I asked her to look at my posts and let me know what she liked and I’d get sewing.

She loves KFC fabrics, and loves scrappy. She selected a very bright, vibrant and colorful zipper pouch. I had some fresh scraps from my scrappy hexagon quilt that would work really well. So this weekend I got cracking on it.

I just love making these scrappy crumb blocks. And I decided to combine the pieces with this pond spot, which is wildly fantastic! I also used it to line the pouch and the zipper pocket. it’s just pops off of the blue spots!!!

I’m not typically a lover of blue, but there’s something really fantastic about Kaffe’s blue spots!

The color in this photo is terrible, but at least it shows the quilting. I did a sort of tight meander, just on the crumb panel. I like to quilt these panels in pouches because I always worry a little about all those seams once the piece is washed. I feel like the quilting will keep everything in place better. Plus, it’s a really nice touch and I like things to be well made!

It’s all ready to go in the mail later this week. And that’s all the sewing I did this weekend.

I was talking to a friend last weekend who was making carnitas in her slow cooker, and that got us talking about her need for pickled onions to make a truly great taco. She went online and found a really quick and easy recipe and I whipped up a batch from it yesterday.

Here’s the recipe I used. It’s really simple and quick. You can choose your own seasonings from a handful of options. I used garlic, pepper corns and dried dill.

In one day it all turned the most beautiful shade of pink! I had some on my salad last night and again tonight and it adds a really nice acidic flavor. I also put some on my turkey sandwich for lunch today and it was just the pop of flavor that it needed!

I had to use every bit of vinegar I had in several different bottles, so I’ve already ordered more vinegar… and more onions because I see myself eating a lot of this in the future!

I was a walking fool over the weekend. I walked 7.5 miles on Friday in two different walks, and did another 5.5 miles on Saturday. Sunday was a rainy day so I squeezed in a morning walk and an evening walk, for a total of 6.5 miles.

I managed to get a two mile walk mid day today, and that makes my work day much better! So we took a relatively short walk of 3.5 miles before dinner tonight for a total to day of 5.5 miles.

Took a picture of Jack’s Tree this afternoon. This is a sequoia in my neighborhood that a friend of mine in Massachusetts just loves. I named it Jack’s Tree because I always think of him when I see it.

It was a gorgeous spring day today.