EKO's Crafty Life

Faux Stain Glass Window My daughter and I made this last week, I took lots of picture and will post a how to soon.

Make an extra picnic blanket We have a picnic blanket that folds into a bag and I use it all the time, however it often gets left in the car when my husband takes it to work and then I am always dragging different blankets out to the yard to lay out for picnic lunches, lounging around on or just plain trying to keep the baby from eating leaves and acorns ( this was the case yesterday). I've had this piece of fabric for a while now (revived from a generous freecycler) and have been planning to make an extra blanket, the fabric is fairly heavy and yet folds up small to keep by our back door or even leave in the bin with our chair pads.  and this week I finally got around to finishing it up. Here is a quick run-down of how I did it.  I cut the fabric in half (it really was the perfect size and was screaming to be made into a picnic blanket from the start.)  placed the two good sides together and sewed around ...

As promised here  is the tutorial for how I patched my jeans I was inspired by the tutorial over at  Make It Do  I added a few steps to make the patch hold up a little bit better. With out further ado here it is. Collect the materials Needed Pre made patch (purchased from Walmart) Fabric for appliqué Cookie cutter to  use as template Stamp to transfer the pattern embroidery floss Not shown scissors, needle, thimble, embroidery hoop and heat and bond Pick a cookie cutter that will cover the hole you need to cover. Place the cookie cutter on an ink pad with light pressure (you do not want to damage the pad) then press the cutter firmly on the back side of your patch that way if you need to reposition or re stamp to leave a darker mark  it you will not leave a mark that will show on your finished project. Cut out the shaped patch and also create a small patch to cover the back side of the hole you w...

This week I patched some of my Jeans that had some holes in the knees I dont know why but I seem to wear out the left knee.  The Tutorial  is now up.

Little Gifts for a One Year Old On The long weekend I had a 1st Birthday to go to and while I had bought a gift already I wanted to add a little something to go with it so I pulled out some flannel (receiving blankets that were no longer needed) and some too small baby bath towels from my sewing stash and made a few little gifts to go with it.  and finally since I keep all of my daughters paintings to re-use, That is what we warped the gift up in. A Crayon Roll ( this actually contains some really chunky Preschool Crayons Crayon rolled all rolled up Large Bibs I made this pattern for my oldest daughter and make them any time i have scraps that are large enough  All Wrapped up

Salsa Night Last week I took an evening after picking up 25 Lbs of Ontario tomato at the store for 6 dollars along with a good sale on peppers and onions I decided to try my hand at canning some salsa. I was afraid it would not be spicy enough  however my husband seems to like it and could not stop dipping chips into the big vat as I was simmering it down so I guess I should take that as his approval. So as promised here is the recipe for the salsa I made last week. 12 lbs Roma Tomatoes (after being peeled and cored) 4 Onions diced 1 Large Green Pepper 2 Small red Peppers 6 Large Jalapeño Peppers 9 Cloves of Garlic minced 1/3 C Coarse picling salt 3/4 C Vinegar 3 Tbs Brown Sugar 2 Tbs Paprika 1 Can tomato past Combine all ingredients in a large pot bring to a boil and let boil gently uncovered for at least 60 min.  halfway through I took a potato masher to break up some of the larger ...

This past week has been a busy yet crafty week a few of the projects I completed are displayed below. I had a wedding to go to and found myself in need of a formal dress length garment bag, so the first thing i did this week was, take a bolt of bold flowered fabric that I picked up at the local thrift shop for 6$ and make a bag for my dress some think the pattern is too bright but i really like it I have a white vintage Samsonite over night bag the goes wonderfully with it as far as I am concerned but please let me know what you think. Garment Bag from vintage thrift store fabric My next project was to get a dinner put together for a new mom in my mommy group.  I started by making a little taggy style blanket for the baby, some crayon rolls for the older siblings and then cooked a lasagna, breakfast bars, baked some croissants ( not from scratch) , made some jam, baked some cookies and some cereal snack mix so that she not onl...