Spinning and churning

You know it's cold when -8C (17.5 F) feels warm! We've had -20 (-4 F) –plus (or minus) overnight temperatures since the beginning of February. I'd show you a picture of Frankie, our outdoor cat, to let you know that he's okay, but he rarely leaves his "house" on our deck until mid-morning, after I've left for work. It’s quite the house as far as cardboard boxes go. I wrapped a sleeping bag around it and put an extra fleece inside - in addition to the carpet and cat bed - just before the freezing weather hit. Apparently he thinks it’s quite cozy. We're all waiting for Spring.

I came across a link to this disappearing pinwheel block over at Linda's Quiltmania  last week and something clicked. Last year i made several sawtoothed stars for a small quilt, but it needed something else. When i saw this block, I gave it a try to see how it looked. I had to make several to find the right size for the star blocks, but I have the measurements now, and I'll get moving on it as soon as I have some spare time. If you’re interested, a 9-inch square will make a 10-inch block; a 9.75-inch square will make an 11.25-inch block; a 10.5-inch square will make a 12.25-inch block; and a 12-inch square will make a 14.25-inch block.

In the meantime, I’m still in post-new year cleaning mode. Cleaning wasn't a resolution on my list, but I found myself in the early stages of spring cleaning anyway so i went with it - probably motivated by the mess caused by last year's renovations, which we're still cleaning up. After I got my fabric sorted and put way (mostly), I decided to weed out my magazine hoard. So far, I've gone through about a third of it so far, scanning the articles I want to save. The magazines are still in almost perfect condition, and are going into the first yard sale of the season. It's fun looking through them all again, one by one, rediscovering all of the patterns I planned to make (hysterical laughter in the background). Having them filed neatly on my computer, rather than hidden in random stacks around the house, makes it more likely that I will make some of them.