PUBLICATIONS
There's been two rounds of publications since my last message.
A book about Japanese flower arranging. Unfortunately, not in time for Christmas, but you'll be able to try out everything advised here for the coming year. By the time next Christmas comes around, you'll be able to decorate with single sprigs and branches. There's another book in this series, but I haven't found it yet. The one I did find turned out to be a duplicate of this title. But we keep an eye open for it.
A small torn-off part of a Berlin woolwork band sampler. Either the rest of the sampler was eaten by moths or it was the most beautiful part - we'll never know. This part was scanned by Taimen Klein. Thank you, Taimen.
This is four loose leaves together. Even though they are separate, they clearly belong together. And the set is not complete. The back of these leaves show combined monograms, and not all are there. My estimate is that there should have been six leaves. We have a strong suspicion that these are Heinrich Kuehn patterns, but there's nothing to actually point to, except for style and size. This one has been scanned by Renko Kuperus, back when we still worked together. Thank you, Renko. I'll get to the others as well.
Then a publication about bead weaving, also known as Apache beadwork. Actually, the technique is not limited to only Apaches or indeed only the New World, but once a name has been given, it tends to stick. The scans were donated and edited by Lydia Palland, and thanks for the reminder, Lydia! And for the scans, of course 🙂 Some of the patterns are a straight copy from Heinrich Kuehn's booklets.
And one from my own collection, a small booklet of the French LVMFA, otherwise well known as publisher of Madame Hardouins books about Irish and other lace. There's several complete alphabets, in two colors. I haven't had the time to rechart them, and the images should be clear enough to be worked as they are now.
The last is a reconstructed pattern from images donated by ebay seller oldastbury. Thank you, Eileen! I have a weak spot for allover patterns, and this is a very nice and simple one, with the colors showing well and yet not giving the impression of a mess. Some of the embroidery is done with silk, the cream lines between the black ones. Recently I took up embroidery again when on train journeys, and I rather like silk better than cotton, since it does not get tangled so much and when it does, the knots are easily unraveled.
FUNDRAISING
A special thanks to the donors of the last three weeks. I've seen the donations pick up a little, for which I am profoundly grateful. Every dollar you donate, allows us to put in two dollars as well.
If you can still miss a few dollars after the Christmas expenses, it'll be gratefully accepted.
Click to support the Antique Pattern Library project to pay for such things as database and website development, web hosting costs, data entry, scanning equipment.
 Please remember: scan donations count, too! They save us room (for the books) money (for the shipping price and customs duties and believe me, those can bite), and time for scanning. So of course, dollars are welcome. And scans are welcome too. The limit of small donations is 700 EUR. It may increase if we get more small donations. That's the limit to what you can donate per year and still have it count towards the small donations. It's recalculated every year. If you donate more, the IRS leaves your donations out of the shortfall ratio. So, if you were planning to donate just above the limit, give some to another organization, buy a cup of coffee and donate just the limit amount. 😉
Also, we are looking for people who can afford a one-time larger donation to support our goals for 2016, which will cost us some money. It will help speed up our publication speed, and make more time available for the actual library work, which is sadly suffering. There are several people volunteering on the Dutch end where all the books are stacked, and they have to be introduced to how to do the work properly, which also takes lots of time.
And if you can't afford to give anything, which also happens in these difficult times, introducing the Library to people who don't know of it yet, is very useful, since it broadens our user base and therefore our donor base. I'll try to publish a flyer in black and white which can be printed and used as handout, for anybody wanting to do that. It would be more useful than a visiting card.
 Anything you donate for the Library, goes to the Library. The donations of the larger donors are far more than enough to cover our overhead, so what you give, goes straight to Library improvement.
Thank you all and enjoy this new set!