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Time waits for no crafter

May 16, 2011 by Joanna LeRoy

Marcy's Calendar

Today we bring you a long overdue post regarding a CHRISTMAS craft — perhaps I need one of these fabulous handmade calendars of my own to keep me up to date? Oh wait… Is deeming it “fabulous” too self-congratulatory? Well, I picked a pattern and fabric that I personally loved, so perhaps not. (Not to get too philosophical, but really, how much creative credit can I take when using someone else’s pattern and fabric line? And the fabric and pattern are truly fabulous.)

The calendar was a gift for my friend Marcy, so I tried to pick colors that would go with her house. Let’s take a quick look, shall we? The pattern is from Rashida Coleman-Hale’s book, i {heart} patchwork, and the fabric is from the Paradise line by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics, which I ordered online from Pink Chalk Fabrics.

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I did sneak in a few fabrics from outside the Paradise line: a Heather Ross snail — hello, day 1! — and the blue checks from my stash.

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The linen was also from my stash (ordered from Japan by way of Etsy, I believe), and I used a kiwi colored thread for quilting that I happened to have on hand for the shirt that shall not be named (nor completed, to date).

Marcy's Calendar

I decided to add a tag made with a rubber stamp (also from Japan-upon-Etsy) and leftover linen twill tape from the month tags. The back side was lined with a single piece of the blue squares & dots print.

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Moving on to my thoughts on the pattern itself:

  • For the grommets, the book calls for 1 extra-large 7/8″ grommet. After searching in vain online for a somewhat unreasonable amount of time (as I tend to do when stubbornly fixated on one mission or another), I finally e-mailed Rashida herself as a last-ditch effort (concede? NEVER!!!). She was fantastic! She wrote me back right away, and clarified that it should be 7/16″. Phew. Now THAT size I could find no problem. Plus I got to feel like I had another run-in with sewing celebrity, so it was all good. Do check out her blog, aptly named i heart linen. (For that matter, go buy her book — while this project was my favorite, there are several other great patterns in there that I can’t wait to make.)
  • As a matter of personal preference, I found that 11″ of cording, once doubled over, was too short. So I eyeballed it to a length that appealed, and called it a day.
  • I should also add that, having visited said calendar this past weekend, the top corners are now starting to curl, which is a bummer. So I might consider doing 2 grommets on the corners instead and/or add some heavyweight interfacing.

Marcy's Calendar

  • Another modification I made was in regard to the last few buttons. The calendar grid is set up to accommodate five Sunday-Saturday “weeks” in a month; however, as conveniently illustrated by the month of January 2011, there are months here and there that actually span six S-S weeks. What’s a girl to do? Get crafty. I calculated that there were really only three days that had the potential to be problematic — the 29th, 30th, and 31st. Not wanted to cause redundancies for months that didn’t span six S-S weeks, nor wanting to extend the calendar grid to accommodate another week, I simply made three extra buttons, so that in addition to the standalone 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, I also had optional 22/29, 23/30 and 24/31 buttons. Problem solved.

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  • And here we have an action shot (woo hoo!) of the Velcro buttons. Another pattern modification here: the pattern calls for 35 Velcro coins for the buttons. Which is all fine and dandy for the calendar base, which does in fact have 35 spaces and therefore 35 Velcro hooks to be sewn on, but you’re also making 7 small linen buttons and 31 larger print buttons: 7 + 31 = 38 Velcro loops. If you want to make the 3 dual-day buttons, you’re up to 41. In other words, play it safe and buy extra.

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  • To store the extra buttons and month labels, I simply grabbed an organza jewelry bag and tucked the extra pieces in.

Marcy's Calendar

All in all, a very fun project to work on. I loved doing the covered buttons, and had fun playing with stamps and glue in addition to the standard sewing. It was hard to give this one away! Check out my Flickr set for more pictures.

Posted in Crafts, Sewing | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments »

Chicken Galliano

May 4, 2011 by Joanna LeRoy

Chicken Galliano

I must start with an apology. No, not for dropping off the face of the planet for the month of April — I reserve the right to do that occasionally as the wedding-planning gods see fit. However, I apparently did not take step-by-step photos of the preparation of this meal. So, you’re just going to have to take my word that this dish required painstaking preparation, carefully honed culinary skills, blood, sweat, tears, and a promise of my first-born.

OK, not really. It’s actually a relatively unfussy dish. The most difficult part was obtaining the Galliano. It’s not the type of ingredient they carry at my usual  townie liquor store attached to a Tedeschi’s. Nor is it the type of thing that you can find in nip-size bottles, so be prepared to spend a good $30+ on a specialty ingredient.

A bit of a forewarning for those of you who, like myself, have not experienced Galliano prior to this recipe: the stuff is odd. Galliano is an Italian liqueur that is made from a blend of no less than 30 herbs and spices, and is best known as one of the key ingredients in the classic mid-century cocktail, The Harvey Wallbanger. It’s BRIGHT yellow and comes in a nifty bottle (these things are important, you know).

According to Wikipedia, “Galliano is marketed as an ‘ideal marrying ingredient’, which adds no intrusive flavor, but serves to deepen and give character to other ingredients, both ordinary and exotic. ” I personally could not disagree more. It added an unusual, quite distinctive taste to the recipe — strong anise flavor, and floral vanilla overtones. You may like it, you may not. Caveat emptor.

Fortunately for me, Mr. Manly liked it. Phew. Remember the “Mikey likes it” Life cereal commercials from the 70s/80s? Yeah, Mr. Manly is kinda like that.

I did, however, make one concession to Mr. M’s palate. My big discovery this year is that oftentimes his dislikes have less to do with flavor as they do texture. Seriously, this was a huge discovery for me, because texture is much easier to manipulate than flavor, which can often only be changed by way of outright omission. My kingdom to be able to cook something with peas in it! So, to avoid the dreaded rubbery wormlike texture of (gasp!) mushrooms, I minced them. Crisis averted. Have I mentioned how much I love mushrooms? This is groundbreaking, indeed.

Finally, can I point out the similarity to Chicken Saltimbocca? Chicken, prosciutto, cheese, pan sauce with alcohol… I love the way minor variations on a theme can create a totally new dish while using familiar methods of preparation.  Needless to say, the difference in cheeses and sauce and the addition of mushrooms drastically changes the taste of the dish. Chicken Galliano has a very complex flavor due to the Galliano, an earthy depth brought on by the mushrooms, and an extra richness due to the creamy goat cheese. It tastes like nothing I’ve eaten before. So why don’t you try it and let me know what you think? I’ll be at the bar drinking a Harvey Wallbanger…

Chicken Galliano
from Saveur Magazine, issue 131

  • 6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, pounded 1⁄8″ thick
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 12 tbsp. herbed goat cheese, softened
  • 6 thin slices prosciutto
  • 6 tbsp. unsalted butter, chilled
  • 10 oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced (or minced)
  • Flour, for dredging
  • 2 tbsp. canola oil
  • 1 1⁄2 cups chicken broth
  • 1⁄4 cup Galliano liqueur
  • 1 tbsp. finely chopped parsley
  • 4 cups cooked rice, for serving

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Working with one breast half at a time, spread one side with 2 tbsp. goat cheese and top with one slice prosciutto; roll into a tight cylinder. Using kitchen twine, tie chicken roll 1″ in from each end. Snip off excess twine.

Heat 3 tbsp. butter in a 12″ skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and cook, without stirring, until browned, 4–5 minutes. Stir mushrooms and continue cooking until softened, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate; wipe out skillet. Put flour on a plate; dredge each chicken roll in flour. Heat 2 tbsp. butter and the oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, turning, until browned and cooked through, 12–14 minutes. Transfer chicken rolls to a plate. Add broth and Galliano to skillet; boil, stirring, until sauce has reduced by a third, 4–5 minutes. Return mushrooms and chicken to skillet; cook, turning to coat in sauce, until warmed through, about 5 minutes.

Transfer chicken to a platter. Remove skillet from heat; swirl in remaining butter to make a smooth sauce. Spoon sauce over chicken; sprinkle with parsley. Serve with rice.

SERVES 4 – 6

Posted in Food Links | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

Ricotta Gnudi

March 17, 2011 by Joanna LeRoy

This post is part of an ongoing series on Italian cookery, affectionately known as “The Spaghetti Capers.”

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You may remember that I previously professed my love for Barbara Lynch, with promises of more posts to come. I don’t remember when I first took a special interest in her career — I want to say it was after Sportello was featured in Saveur magazine, and I learned of her Italian venture? I was already an avid fan by the time she was featured on the cover of the Boston Globe magazine (great article — I encourage you to read it!); and was therefore thrilled when I stumbled across her segment on the Cooking Channel where she walks the viewer through the recipe for Ricotta Gnudi.

Ricotta Gnudi! What, you may ask, is ricotta gnudi, anyway? From what I’ve read, gnudi is, much like it sounds, the Italian word for nude. Can’t wait to see what kind of readers are going to stumble across my blog now that the words “nude Italian” are on here… Essentially, gnudi are akin to ravioli filling…with nothing enclosing them; instead, you roll them out like gnocchi. However, unlike gnocchi–or “little sinkers” as my grandfather always calls them–gnudi are absolutely pillow soft and light. It’s like eating happy little Italian clouds (channeling my inner Bob Ross).

The best way to make ricotta gnudi, of course, would be to make your own ricotta. My cheesemaking party plans have been stymied for the past year, however, so I was more than happy to use the fresh ricotta from Narragansett Creamery instead (see prior raves here and here).

Shall we kick off this gnudi party, then? Start by mixing together your ricotta with some flour, an egg, parmesan, salt and white pepper.
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Your dough will be super sticky and a little tricky to work with. This is a good thing — this is why the gnudi will be light and airy.
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Next, gently roll out your dough by hand into a log and cut into bite size pieces. Hard to work with = messy. This is OK. Embrace the mess. (That’s actually one of my mantras for the year…but that’s another story).
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Roll the pieces into balls and use a gnocchi board or back of a fork to make ridges on each piece. Note: I tried the fork method, and was highly unimpressed. I have since bought a gnocchi board and look forward to using that for future batches.

Once all your gnudi have been formed, place them on a tray and freeze them.
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In the meantime, start your sauce. I must say, like most Italians, I’m partial to my grandmother’s sauce. Disregard the fact that it’s actually my grandfather, not my grandmother, who is of Italian descent. Doesn’t matter. It’s my Noni’s sauce we’re talking about! That said, Barbara Lynch’s sauce is so easy and most excellent. And since the recipe is, well, a recipe and not a splish-splash of this, that, and the other, I expect I can make it with more consistent results. This may be my new go-to sauce.

Start by sautéing your veggies in olive oil. Note that it’s killing me a little inside not to add carrots, because I always add carrots to my sauce.
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Next, add your tomatoes and wine and simmer.
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Time to cook the gnudi! Carefully lower the gnudi into a pot of boiling water; I used a slotted spoon to avoid splashing. They don’t take long to cook at all, and the cool part is that they float to the surface when they’re done — it’s like nature’s turkey timer: POP! Done!

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I had to cook them in batches, so I just transferred the cooked gnudi to the pan of sauce to stay warm while I cooked the rest of the batches. Nothing left to do after that but spoon into bowls, top with some fresh basil and parmesan, and enjoy. It’s so good and well worth the mess. I’ve actually got a smile on my face just thinking about them.
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Ricotta Gnudi
from Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition, by Barbara Lynch

  • 1 lb. fresh ricotta
  • 1 c. flour + additional
  • 1 lg. egg
  • 1/3 c. finely grated Parm-Reggiano
  • 1 T. kosher salt
  • 1/2 t. freshly ground white pepper
  • 2 c. Odd Fellow Marinara Sauce

In a large mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, 3/4 cup of the flour, the egg, cheese, salt, and pepper. Use a wooden spoon to mix ingredients together well. Lightly flour your work surface and a baking sheet for holding the shaped gnocchi. With floured hands knead the ricotta mixture briefly; it will be quite wet and sticky at this point. Dump the mixture out onto your work surface.

Cut off a piece of the gnocchi dough and try rolling it into a 3/4-inch thick log. If you can’t get it to roll, add a little more flour to the dough and try again. You want as little flour as possible to keep these together so the resulting gnocchi will be light and ethereal. Cut the log into 1-inch pieces and then into little balls. If you have a gnocchi board, hold it at a 45-degree angle over your floured baking sheet and roll each ball down the length of it to give the gnocchi grooves. As the gnocchi nears the end of the board, let it drop onto the baking sheet. If you don’t have a gnocchi board, hold a fork, tines facing down, and roll the ball down the length of the tines. Repeat until all of the dough is rolled and cut. Freeze the gnudi, about 1 hour. (Because they are so soft, they are much easier to handle so do this even if you plan to use them soon.)

To serve, bring a large pot of well-salted water to a gentle boil. In batches, drop the gnocchi into the water and cook until they float, about 1 to 2 minutes. As each batch cooks, remove them with a slotted spoon and keep them warm or transfer them directly to the sauce they are being served with.

Odd Fellow Marinara Sauce
also from Stir

  • 1 T. extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 small white onion, sliced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • ½ t. crushed red pepper flakes, plus more to taste
  • 1 (28-oz.) can crushed San Marzano tomatoes
  • ½ c. dry white wine
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 2-3 basil leaves

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and crushed red pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is just tender but not browned, about 8 minutes.

Add the wine, increase the heat to moderately high and cook for a few minutes longer, until reduced by half. Add the tomatoes with their juice and ½ teaspoon salt. Simmer for 5 minutes, stir in the basil and season with pepper and additional salt, if needed. The sauce can be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 days.

Posted in Food Links, The Spaghetti Capers | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments »

Cookie Winner!

March 6, 2011 by Joanna LeRoy

(drumroll)…the winner of the blogiversary cookies was chosen by the random number generator:

#4, Katie!

Seems like fate is on the side of the birthday girl — everyone wish Katie a very happy birthday tomorrow! Katie, I’ll send you an email shortly to get your mailing address and see what kind of cookies you’d like 😉

 

And because a). I like to include a fun photo in every post, and b). Zoe has been regrettably absent from this blog for quite some time, let’s all take a moment to acknowledge that I have the cutest cat in the world:

 

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Posted in Food Links | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

Reflections and thanks

February 27, 2011 by Joanna LeRoy

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Ahem. If I can draw your attention away from that beautiful photo for a minute, I’d like to take a minute to express my gratitude. On February 16, my little blog turned one year old. Time indeed flies. A year ago, I really knew nothing of blogging. Oftentimes, I suspect I still don’t…

In typical fashion, I threw myself into my new interest in a — dare I say? — obsessive manner. I spent the grand majority of the past year learning as much as I could about blogging, bloggers, social media, online networking and the like. I currently follow 128 blogs, of which about 90 are sewing related, 20 food, 10 wedding, and the rest philosophy/art. I’ve learned quite a bit with this daily reading (and yes, I read each post!), but as you can imagine it takes up a good chunk of time. At the same time that I was stashing away information, collecting recipes, tutorials, and inspiration, I also began working on building my own little fabric stash. Point being, I have been preparing. For a year. I think I can quite safely move out of “data collection” mode and into action, yes? My goal for the upcoming year, then, is to read less, do more.

Before I can turn the page on last year, however, I have two orders of business to take care of. First, back to that beautiful box of fabrics…do you know what that is? Those are, quite literally, the spoils of reading 128 blogs! As any of you who follow craft blogs regularly are well aware, a perk of reading craft blogs is the phenomenon of the giveaway. Giveaways, giveaways, giveaways. They’re everywhere! And I’m grateful to report that everything in that picture was won on various blog giveaways over the course of the past year. I wasn’t able to bring myself to cut into them until I had them properly documented, thanks were given, and I spent enough time just sitting around looking at them. So let’s do that so I can use them! Wanna look at them too?

The first giveaway I ever won was this charm pack of Punctuation by Sandy Klop for American Jane. Many thanks to Heather from Mountain Home Quilts.

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Shortly thereafter, I won the following fat quarter by my favorite fabric designer ever, Anna Maria Horner, in home deco weight from her Drawing Room collection. Thanks to Jenny from Stumbles & Stitches. Jenny, I may need your expertise, as I’ve been commissioned to make a Dad Bag myself for my brother-in-law!

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In a fun giveaway from Sarah at Stash Resolution, I got to pick my own selection of 6 fat quarters from Sarah’s new Etsy shop, Swell Cloth. It was hard to narrow down the choice, but I ended up with the following gorgeous mix of fabrics, including some Joel Dewberry, Heather Bailey, and Bliss by Bonnie & Camille. Thanks, Sarah!

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Back before the holidays, Kelly at Stitch-n-Lounge gave away this great collection of green and pink fabrics from the Sweet Broderie collection — perfect for a mod holiday project. Now that the holidays are a distant memory, I’m starting to reconsider, and am thinking of how cute these would be in a project for my baby niece due in June, thanks to Kelly.

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Food blogs do in fact do giveaways as well, if a little less frequently. The way I look at it, most food blogs are doing giveaways in the form of a recipe on a daily basis! I won a whole collection of recipes from Lara over at Good Cook Doris, another local Boston blog. Now, the intent is for Mr. Manly to use this to book to cook food for me, but… well, I think we’ll both be happier if I hoard the cookbooks and he sticks to eating all the leftovers. Many thanks, Lara!

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During the December Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day, I was super excited to find out I had won a bundle of fat quarters from Mo Bedell’s Party Dress line…from Mo Bedell herself! My goodness. I’m still slightly awed by my run in with fabric celebrity. Thank goodness my sister is having a girl, because these are gonna make some darling baby things. Much gratitude to Mo.

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Most recently, during Aimee Ray’s Doodle Stitch Along hosted by Lark Books, I won a copy of Aimee’s latest book, Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection, along with a pair of embroidered napkins that were photographed for one of the projects in the book. Those will most definitely be staying on display for a while! Scroll down a couple of posts to see some of the pieces I embroidered using her patterns — there’s an entire woodland motif section, so I can’t wait to do more! Thanks to Aimee, and be sure to check out her gorgeous blog, little dear tracks, for more embroidery fun.

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(As an aside, please feel free to compliment me on my artistic use of the blur feature on Piknik to fade out the massive cat hair that was ruining my otherwise nice picture of those oh-so-white napkins. Jo: 1, Zoe: 0)

Finally, I won a $5 credit to the Yummi Designs store on Etsy, which I’m putting towards this awesome little clutch. Thanks Alycia, and thanks to Kirsten and Jordan at kojodesigns for hosting the giveaway!

And in the spirit of giveaways, just wanted to say hello to Kim of Pokeytown Kim, the winner of the apron, fabric, and buttons giveaway I did back in December. A former South Shore gal like myself, Kim is now in snowy New York and is a very talented quilter and sweet lady.

Wasn’t that fun? On a related note, I really enjoy sharing fun finds, blogs, tutorials and the like with people who will appreciate them. Translation: I annoyingly spam my friends’ and family’s inboxes with hyperlinks on a regular basis. I recently got an invite to join Pinterest, and am totally hooked! Basically, Pinterest works like a virtual pinboard, where you can store all your bookmarks, but see them as photos. For a visual person like myself (who generally operates under the “out of sight, out of mind” principle), this thing is genius. I already have my recipes covered with Recipe Nut, and will stick with that for food, but Pinterest is already fantastic for tutorials and wedding inspiration. You can find me on Pinterest here; joining is by invite only, so if you’d like to join, just drop me a line and I’ll be happy to send you an invite. Here’s a sample of what one of my pinboards looks like:

Now for that second and last order of business before I can move into my second year of blogging. You didn’t think I’d just gloat about all the giveaways I’ve won without giving a little something back to the universe, did you? See, I’ve had the hankering to make cookies. Like many a soon-to-be-bride, however, I’ve unfortunately found myself on a diet for the past few months (SHHHH! The Hungry Crafter on a diet? Say it ain’t so!?!?) So, my question is: is there anyone out there who might like to help me eat cookies? In celebration of one year of blogging?

Leave me a comment below, and I’ll figure out some random way of fairly picking a winner to get cookies made by me. In fact, the winner can even take their pick of any cookie/bar in my recipe box over on Recipe Nut. Or roll the dice on “chef’s choice.” It’s up to you. You deserve cookies. And I deserve to eat one or two before packing them all away and shipping them off to you to ensure no further cookie temptation remains in my house. Sound like a plan? Oh, let’s put an end date on this — I’ll pick a winner on Sunday, March 6th. Happy new blog year, y’all. I’m looking forward to it.

Posted in Crafts, Sewing | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments »

A dinner party with options…and benefits

February 13, 2011 by Joanna LeRoy

I mean, really — aren’t all dinner parties “parties with benefits” in the end? You get to eat the great food AND keep the leftovers. Which is particularly nice when the leftovers include a bottle of Bailey’s. But let’s start at the beginning…

I invited my sister and her husband over for dinner last night, and presented them with the following menu options to pick from:

Menu 1

Menu 2
*Recipe is the same as the one in the link, with the following alterations, made by my grandfather: Omit fennel seeds & Sambuca. Double amount of pistachios, and substitute 1 c. chopped dried apricots for the figs. Increase the amount of flour to 2.5 c. Can substitute orange zest for lemon zest.

Menu 3
Unanimous prize-winning “Jo’s is the best” Brownie Pudding & homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

Menu 4

Can you tell I had asparagus that needed to get used up?

And the winner…

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MENU #1!

Except…oh, except…that french bread recipe did NOT work out at all. Two attempts and 12 CUPS of wasted flour later, I moved on to Plan B, which was orecchiette pasta with some homemade pesto I put in the freezer at the end of the summer. Save! I’m afraid the asparagus appetizer got eaten up before I thought to bring out my camera, which is probably the finest testimony to the success of that recipe you can get. So let’s just look at those gorgeous scallops again instead.

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The salsa was great, the scallops good, and the pasta heavenly, especially in the middle of this dreary winter. I still need to refine my scallop searing technique (I found a great tutorial here that I need to reread before my next attempt). I couldn’t find satsuma oranges, so I substituted tangerines for the juice and zest, and used blood oranges for the whole segments, because, well, they’re just so gosh darn pretty to look at, don’t you think?

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As for the cupcakes….they were AMAZING. And I clearly need to take a cake decorating class. Let’s recap: The recipe starts by melting two sticks of butter in Guinness. I pretty much don’t see how anything that starts like that can end badly. This eventually turns into Guinness Stout Cupcakes, which I made extra chocolatey by using an extra-dark cocoa powder. Next, you scoop out the centers (technically you should use a 1″ cookie cutter or an apple corer, but not owning either, I made do with a small melon baller).  After (ahem) “disposing” of the centers, you fill it with a chocolate whiskey ganache, made with Jameson’s of course. Next up? Yup. Top it off with Bailey’s frosting. My only edit to the recipe is that it calls for 3-4 cups of confectioner’s sugar for the frosting, and I probably only got through 2 cups before the frosting hit its saturation point.

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My sister thought the stout/yeasty beer flavor in the cupcakes was strong; the rest of us wanted it even stronger. The ganache filling was TO. DIE. FOR. I may or may not have eaten it by the spoonful while in the process of filling the cupcakes. The frosting was definitely on the sweet side (“Not that there’s anything wrong with that!”), and the Bailey’s flavor was perfect. In making these, I, of course, always went with the higher suggested amount of booze whenever it gave you an option in the recipe. And drank the leftover stout. And ate the leftover chocolate. And disposed of the cupcake centers in my stomach. And licked lots of wooden spoons and spatulas and paddles and fingers and… I’m going to change the name of my blog to “The Hygienic Chef.”

So, which menu would you pick if you were coming over to dinner? I’m pretty much dying to try them all, myself…


Posted in Food Links | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Hansel & Gretel or Little Girl Blue?

January 25, 2011 by Joanna LeRoy

Doodle Stitchalong #2

Motif #2 from the Doodle Stitch Along! This week’s motif was “Woodland Children,” although I found myself thinking of them as Hansel & Gretel. Other fellow stitchers went with Little Red Riding Hood & the Hunter, which I suppose works as well. What do YOU think?

I was also flattered to be featured as one of four samples on Aimee’s blog, Little Dear Tracks. Be sure to check it out if you’re enjoying the embroidery designs. And if you’re not — well…there’s only 2 more weeks ;). Then it will be back to food as usual.

Posted in Crafts, Crewel & needlepoint | 4 Comments »

Gnome with fuzzy beard

January 16, 2011 by Joanna LeRoy

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Just a little something to tide you all over while I work on a couple larger posts! I decided to jump in on Aimee Ray’s Doodle Stitch Along. Total instant gratification project — I started last night and finished up this morning.

Happy long weekend to all!

Posted in Crafts, Crewel & needlepoint | 7 Comments »

Winner!

December 19, 2010 by Joanna LeRoy

Guys, I am FLOORED by the number of you who stopped by last week for Giveaway Day! The sincerest of thanks to each of you for leaving a comment, and a thrilled welcome to my new readers. Out of 343 entries, Mr. Random Number Generator picked….#209, Kim from Pokeytown Kim. Kim, you’ve been emailed and I will get your package in the mail as soon as you send me your address.

And because I can’t have a post without a photo, here’s a sneak peek at my latest completed project. Full review forthcoming in the next post. Thanks again to all, and congratulations Kim!

Posted in Crafts, Sewing | Tagged | 2 Comments »

Giveaway Day!

December 12, 2010 by Joanna LeRoy

I’m very excited to be doing my first ever blog giveaway — and I can’t think of a better inaugural event than this! After launching The Hungry Crafter in February 2010 and bumbling my way through the first few months of blogging, I ran across May Giveaway Day at Sew, Mama, Sew!. After compulsively working my way through the giveaway blog list, I found myself launched headfirst into the wide world of craft blogs, and a new obsession began. A Google Reader account, Flickr Pro account, new URL, Facebook page and a (brand-spanking-new for you this week!) Feedburner feed later, I can honestly say that I have learned more than I ever could have imagined from all my fellow bloggers in the past ten months. I’ve loved blogland so much that I’ve been waiting ever since then for the opportunity to participate in Giveaway Day myself. For more info on Giveaway Day (and to find the master list of participating blogs), visit Sew, Mama, Sew!

For new readers, a warm welcome to you! My name is Jo, aka “The Hungry Crafter,” and this is where I work on building an idyllic world of all things handmade — both crafty and tasty — and explore related Boston-area events. For more about the philosophy behind this blog, read this entry. For links to some of my favorite tutorials and ongoing project lists, check out the “To Make” and “No, Really, To Make” tabs up at the top. I hope you like what you see on this blog — if so, please subscribe. Tools for e-mail, Facebook, and/or RSS subscription are over there on the top right.

You may notice that this has morphed into much more of a food blog than a craft blog over the past six months or so…to which I can only shrug my shoulders and say, “Hey! I never promised to be a *prolific* crafter…just a hungry one!” And hungry I am! The good news for all you crafty folks is that I’ll definitely have a couple of new crafting posts up just as soon as the holidays are over. And I bet a couple of you are hungry too… 😉

But enough chatter — let’s have a giveaway!

It seemed only proper that I should give away the first craft to grace the pages of this blog — the linen patchwork apron. You can check out the original post here for more pictures.

And just for fun, I wanted to share a little extra something for your own crafty pleasure: a fat quarter of Heather Ross‘s blue unicorn from the original Far, Far Away collection, and three hand-covered buttons featuring some critters from my Japanese linen stash.

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To enter, just leave a comment below — that’s it! One entry per person, and the giveaway will close at 12pm EST on Friday, December 17th. I’ll be away on the 18th, so will draw and announce the winner on Sunday. Good luck, and thanks so much for stopping by!

Posted in Crafts, Sewing | Tagged | 344 Comments »

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