Does anyone remember the AFARR?

I remember - because I was supposed to stitch the letter Z - and had to be patient. It got misplaced somewhere earlier in the alphabet I think -but I don't know where. I'm SO sorry - maybe someone else recalls who had it last and we can try to locate it again. I believe it was in the U.S. somewhere.

Trish, I remember the AFARR but I wasn't part of the group stitching on it. I did a google search and the last post about it was back in 2005 by Karen C. She said Lollee had it but the chart got lost during a move. She was going to order another one. That's the last post I could find. I don't remember Lollee but maybe someone knows how to contact her. ~*~ Jeri

I remember all the talk about it....but wasn't one of the stitching team, either.

You know, Jeri, that is only five years ago. Someone must have it, or maybe can remember to whom they sent it.

There is Mary Monica's new mystery....what happened to the AFARR!!!!!

Gillian

I've still got the e-mails that Trish sent to us who were on the list to work on the piece. I don't see Lollee listed for any of the letters. Then again, I do remember things changing a bit as time went on. I stitched the letter N and then the piece on to Rita. Not sure what happened after that but I do remember several people workking on it after MOI. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

Oooo! It's nice to think there are still a few folk around who remember me poor old AFARR. It was beautiful! Of course, I'd made my mind up that it was expendable before I ever sent it off, so I won't die if it's never found. I just thought I'd ask... y'know?

I think it had gotten down to the letter 'Q', which was pretty excellent, really.

So, having said all that, how *is* everyone?

It's great to hear from old friends like Melissa, Jeri, Gill and (bells and whistles) Tia Mary (do you still have your neon @ badge???)

So much time has passed, hasn't it? I began lurking at rctn in 1990 or thereabouts. That's twenty-odd years! My kids have grown up before my very eyes and grey hairs have started popping out all over. Glasses are now a permanent fixture on my nose and kneeling down is a thing of the distant past. Geez! Talk about Old Age creeping up!

I haven't stitched much lately. Well, not for a good while, really. DS is still working periodically on his 'Goddessy Lady' ('Earth Mother') kit and has dabbled a bit with beading. He's currently knitting the Jean Greenhowe Nativity Set for Christmas. He knat it last year, but Mum kidnapped it and so he's having to make a duplicate for our place. This is fine, because he found some wonderful sparkly pu-pu-purple wool for one of the We-Three-Kings and some nice golden metally stuff for their crowns. He has also begun a quest to design his very own knitting pattern for an anatomically correct horse/unicorn. He gets quite upset when the ones you can buy don't have hocks (the backward-bendy joint in the hindlegs). You'll probably know when he has his 'Eureka' moment: you'll hear him bellowing 'Mum! I've got it!' LOL!

I've had a bit of a dabble in quilting and made some nice ones for the family. I have a hunormous UFO quilt which is so big, I can't work out exactly how I'm going to quilt it. It will be by hand, but making the quilt sandwich is gonna be hard. I've put this project on the back-burner until my friend, PDC, comes down from Darwin at Christmas time. We'll probably take it up to the Scout Hall and lay the whole thing out on trestle tables...

Forgot to say, the quilt is an exercise in strawberries. I like strawberries. Not to eat (yick!), but as a design motif. So, I collected strawberry-flavoured fabrics for years and then made a massive Dresden Plate quilt top out of them It's nice: mostly in shades of dark reds and greens, but with other bright colours as well.

I digress to say that, on account of my Big Hunn sat on our marital bed and snapped it one day, we got a new bed which is Really Large. This is why the quilt is 2.5m square and thus so unwieldy.

What else? Oh yes, I found the Priscilla crochet books online and finally taught myself how to do Irish crochet. It's *so much fun*!!! I love the fine work with a tiny hook and the lace you can make is just scrumptious. I started out with a baby bonnet for my step-granddaughter, but someone commented that it looked more like a tea-cosy.

!!!

Irish crochet is sort of 'dimensional' - some might say 'crusty' and does have the propensity to look a tad overdone in some circumstances. The baby bonnet was my learning piece.

Since then, I made crocheted inserts to snazz up an ordinary old T-shirt and that worked rather nicely. I just let the inserts into the body of the shirt near the hem and sleeve bottoms and it's so pretty! I've got an idea for a nice crisp white cotton shirt embellised with Irish crochet lace, but that will be a Big Undertaking and probably something I might have trouble finishing. Maybe later...

I've also made filet crochet spring jackets for my DMum and DD. These were so quick and fun to work up! DD's white jacket is made of a simple Irish crochet chain filler stitch with picots and it looks like a designer lace garment. Mum's jacket is turquoise and is more tunic-like with longer sleeves. It's based on a repeating filet-type pattern and has the dearest little picot edging made out of crab-stitch at the neck and hem. Both are made from cotton which I got *very* inexpensively from ebay. Good old ebay!!!

Speaking of ebay, it also provided me with a very reasonably-priced smocking pleater. I've wanted to try smocking *forever*, but some Phoul Gremlin in my brane wouldn't permit me to make decent pleats by hand. Now, with my trusty little pleater, I can! I have smuck one (1) little sampler piece with patterns made up of different stitches and I plan to do a summer peasant blouse for DD before I'm much older. Smocking is so easy and I feel really silly for having been too nervous to pleat for all these years. Think of all the little-girl things I could've made for DD! I guess I'll just have to do them for DSGD now. ;->

The other thing that's been keeping me pretty busy is my garden. We decided that Lawns are Lousy and so filled up ours with raised garden beds full of roses and violets and pansies and strawberries etc etc etc. It's an ongoing work of art and I just *love* planting things and then waiting for the flowers to arrive on my table. We've also embarked in a veggie patch and that's been doing very well too. The kids were underwhelmed by the spinach until I made Spinach and Feta pie with it.

Our fences are pretty ugly (corrugated iron) and so I'm currently on a mission to grow many many varieties of gerania to cover it up. So far, it's looking nice with ivy gerania on trellises and zonal pelargonia in front and violets lining all the edges. Of coures, the nice thing about good old gerania is that you can neglect them like mad and they'll still flower their little hearts out for you.

Just recently, I started feeling a bit cross-stitchish, and so I pulled out a few of my old UFOs and set about deciding which ones I'll work on. That's how come I was prompted to ask about the AFARR. For now, it's my ancient St Frantic of Assisi piece that I'm hoping to get done. We'll see how that pans out...

Finally, the age-old question: what is everyone else stitching?

Just have to ask....what is AFARR??

just me, Cathy from KY in CA

Oh good you saved me the trouble of asking.

And if you want free Irish Crochet patterns go here

Sorry! It's 'Australian Floral Alphabet Round Robin'. ;-D

IIRC, Lollee wasn't her real name.

Joan

I think her name was Linda Roberts. Does that ring a bell?

Mavia

YES Linda Roberts in Houston, TX is on the list for letter "T". After her was Jamie Quiroga and then Joan E. Obviously, Joan never got the alphabet or she would have told us. I don't remember seeing Jamie posting for a long time. CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at