Friday Cat Blogging – 31 May 2013

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Today we’re back to quiltblogging. The quilter-in-chief is helping out with the photography by waving a finger in the general direction of the catbloggee-in-chief.

This is a Mystery Quilt. Here’s how this works. Apparently you get instructions for making it a bit at a time. First, you get instructions on what fabric to buy. Then you’re told to do some cutting. Then some other cutting. And some stitching. Then some other stuff. Eventually, when you get to the final page of instructions, it all comes together.

Now, it seems to me that it’s fine to call this a mystery quilt while it’s being pieced together. But once it’s done, shouldn’t it be something else? When you receive the final page of instructions, shouldn’t you slap your head and say Aha! That’s what it is! I guess not.

In any case, this is a Debbie Caffrey pattern, machine pieced and hand quilted using 1930s reproduction fabrics. It was done some time ago, back when Marian still preferred hand quilting. No longer, though. Machine quilting, I’m told, has improved dramatically in recent years, and anyway, some time back Marian found a machine quilter she adores who now does all our quilting for us. She’s really good (and has the backlog to prove it).

In other news, Grumpy Cat has landed a film deal. Seriously.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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