Spring in Madison Valley

 It is the 8th of May and we woke up to about 4 inches of snow. The moisture is welcome although the snow will be melted away by the end of the day. We've had very little snow during the Winter 2020-2021 and expect a bad fire season staring around Independence Day until the first snow in late September or early October. 

Here are pictures from our front door looking out onto the Gravelly mountain range.

The one on the left is looking WSW. Many times we see the mule-eye deer at the summit of the mountain. 

The picture to the right is also from our front door but it is looking WNW. This is the property of the young man who installed our sprinkler system a year ago. Such a pretty snow because there was little or no wind.

In addition to preparing for registration to open for Palmetto Tatters Guild, I've actually been tatting some. I've taken time to attend some of the On Line Tatting classes now available on YouTube. I've even done some of the "homework" and taken pictures. I've done a little test tatting for some of the classes. Right now, there is a project on-going by Tamie Montgomery (the classes leader/owner/administrator) to create and send to Georgia Seitz, the originator more than 20 years ago, a "thinking of you" card. Tamie is encouraging everyone to build their own and send to Tamie. She will then package all of the cards together and send to Georgia. 

The "pieces" in the picture above come from several lessons and have not yet been blocked; I still have a cute little bunny to add. The "frame" is from a class taught on April 26 as is the "hill" for the trees. The edging is Joelle Paulson's Fluerette Edging. The primary difference is that the picots from the hill have all the picots the same whereas on the frame, the joining picot on each floret is very small. This creates a snug edging where the other style is a bit loose.

The trees are from Nancy Tracy. The pattern is a wonderful edging. I did however use a half double-double stitch for the "ground" chains for the trees. The Tulip is a cute little pattern from Kathleen Minnitti of the Shuttlebirds Tatting group. I did change it up just a bit (so what's new?) by using Leesa Kramer's suggestions for a second loop at the base of the Single Shuttle Split Rings ... it really adds more sturdiness.