Dear me, this is getting to be a very long letter. Does anybody actually read it to the end?
PUBLICATIONS
This time, we start off with an old and timeworn footstool. The images are a donation of ebay seller jennysfrenchboudoir. Although the embroidery is somewhat damaged, the pattern could be reconstructed easily from those nice sharp photos. Although, when I looked at it a second time, the background color might have been light blue, instead of the muted green I thought when I charted it. But any embroiderer can switch the colors around as pleased.
It appears to have been quite common to have an embroidered stripe running down in the middle of an upholstered chair seat or back. My aunt, who died last summer, left a chair like that. I made photographs and probably will publish that pattern someday too. Plus, I've seen several items on auction sites (not just ebay) that feature the same idea. I'd think the middle part of the seat would wear out the first, so maybe it was meant to be replaced or re-embroidered when worn? Does anybody have an idea?
The second publication is a set of filet patterns, Filet Hongrois. Actually, it's in three or four shades, white (probably point de reprise) a lighter grey (point de toile, I think it's called when the thread is woven both horizontal and vertical), and a somewhat darker grey in two variations, a vertical lined and a horizontal lined square. I don't know if this was meant just for shading or that actually colors should be used. At first I thought the set was not complete because I did not see a number 1, but then I saw that the left hand side of the first (double) pattern was numbered 1. It's from our own collection.
Sarah Duehr charted the first two patterns. The others will be done in due time, though they are quite difficult to make out here and there. I tried it myself and soon experienced that they were not as easy as the usual filet pattern.
FUNDRAISING
Then, our yearly effort to keep our public funding ratio to the required limit. Although I haven't done all the definitive calculations, I can give a ballpark number. It will be around 6000 USD, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less.
And since the fund raising started late this year (mea maxima culpa) we may have some difficulty in making it. Fortunately, the prospect is not so dire as it was last year, since we've had some lovely donations of money and of scans, which helped us get a serious leg up to our initial goal, which was around double that amount.
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.
In the meantime, don't hesitate to support us via Amazon Smile or by making a small donation ;-)
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.
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 2015, 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. (My illness did not help things much either.) We've had one large donation already, which will keep us in programming hours for a while, and may help to overhaul the entire site so I don't have to spend so much time on administrative preparations before publishing. Thank you, B ;-) There are already people at work, thanks to your generous gift.
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.
Thanks to all the donors and volunteers, for all the help and new or improved material you provided.
Enjoy this new set.
In a few days I will leave my current job and start life as a pensioner. That'll be a lot less money but a lot more time. And since the books here are stacked against walls and in the middle of rooms, I rather think the time will be useful. I look forward to being able to spend more time on publications and contact with forum members and volunteers, and hope that we'll see a significant increase in new stuff published!
Best wishes all,
Sytske
