Almost an update - also, need your help

I have been so busy with landlord and housing related stupidity that I have had virtually NO time to do anything art-wise. Which is pretty unfortunate, because I have a lot of stuff I really ought to be working on. Luckily I found a GREAT apartment, dangerously located just next to an antique shop, and am settling in nicely. I hope to get back to some of my projects soon!

One thing I have been doing is researching for an upcoming show. I'm really interested in embroidered game boards right now. I've found a lot of great examples in my searches, and one in particular is a fascinating mystery. I found this great image on a game blog



with no information about the image other than that it is a game called Chinesenspiel, a variant of Pachisi.

Does anyone know anything about this board? It's definitely a textile, looks to be embroidered but I can't find a better image to be entirely positive. I'm not even sure it's a functional Chinesenspiel board because it differs slightly from the other examples pictured. I don't enough about this particular type of game to say. I think it's really beautiful though and I'd love to know more about where it came from or who did it!

Mr X Stitch Birthday Celeberation & Giveaways

I mistyped up there in the subject line -- Mr X Stitch is, as far as I know, NOT going to berate you, but I can't really speak for him. Anyway, the deal is that it's the one year anniversary of mrxstitch.com and all kinds of awesome stuff is being given away as a result. Check out the full list of celeb(e)ration goings-on here.

Call for vendors!

Visit the blog for more information and to download an application!

knowing when to quit, and moving on to other pursuits

So, I sort of unofficially decided to pull the plug on Embloggery the other day, and what a weight off my mind it is. I hadn't realized how sort of supremely it had taken over my mental energy, even though I wasn't updating very often anymore. Although I wasn't working on it, I was always thinking about it, how I should be working on it, how it felt like a chore, how I didn't have anything more to say.

I'd made this sort of pact with myself that I was going to do it for a year. But there was really no need to continue it; I could keep feeling annoyed with it and making uninspired posts until December, or I could just spare everyone including myself and get on with the business of thinking about things I really want to work on. Embloggery was, after all, a distraction between projects from the start!!

Anyway, services will be held for Embloggery at an as yet undisclosed location in or around Bloomington, Indiana sometime in late September.

I'm really excited to be moving on to new things. These days my tastes run to either the absolutely impermanent and/or purposefully destructive, or embellished functional items, particularly with a nerdy historical bent.

Pockets, pouches and hands-free forms of carrying important items are consuming a lot of my mind right now. Like this. What do you think they were keeping in the little bitty pouches?

I'm super interested in these saccoccias (saccociae?) right now. It's worth reading that whole page, by the way, as well as looking at the images, because it talks a bit about the history of hidden pockets in women's clothing and has a pattern which is, you know, awesome.

I guess I should quit being surprised that people always think I'm in the SCA.