It's been a while since the last newsletter and I'm so sorry for not writing. I had a wonderful Fall, teaching for four different guilds in about a month's time. Pictured here are my Dancing Spools students at Terri Sontra's annual retreat. We had a 6-hour class together and then I joined the retreat as a civilian the next day. While I got to sew on my own stuff, everyone else finished their spools. It was so cool to see so many quilt finished tops---a few were even quilted!

My full teaching schedule was followed by a thorough house-cleaning (yick) and Zoey's first birthday party (yay)! Planning and packing before my travels were followed by some recovery time and serious "nesting" afterwards which explains the lack of newsletters. But, I do have news!

In between trips I made Zoey a little birthday quiltlet, Bea is her middle name, which is why there is a "Bee" in the middle.

I also bought an oven that works. It came with the new stove. The old one kept confusing the temperature I set on the dial with the self-cleaning mode. Ever make cookies that are black and hard as a rock on the outside and raw on the inside? The spots those leave on the baking sheets never come out. The flames were kind of fun to watch though.

I broke in the oven with Potato Cup Fritattas. Made 24 of the little stinkers for Zoey's party. They came out great but I gained 5 pounds because I had to test the recipe three times before I did them for real.

I used the pre-shreaded hash browns you find in the refrigerated section; substituted skim mild for cream; omitted the flour cilantro, chiles, cumin, and jalapeno; added tiny ham cubes, and put a little shredded cheddar in the hash browns and in the egg mixture. I also used muffin tins instead of cupcake tins. And, the big improvement was partially scrambling the egg/stuff until half of it wasn't runny. THEN I spooned it into the baked potato cups. If I just poured it in, the egg ran out the cups made the outside soggy. I hate soggy.

The dog is back. I haven't gone anywhere, but I was just trying to add some pizzazz to my paragraph. I stay home and mope when Mom is traveling. It's OK, Dad throws extra stuff for me to run after. He's a good guy. I've been a good dog. I know this because I got another Bark Box. You can watch me open it in the video. If your dog has been good, click here.