mystery quilt progress, two books and cat toys

The mystery quilt clues continue!  (There's just a couple of days left to sign up if you want to do this free project - after that you'll have to pay for the pattern and it won't be a mystery any more!)

There were no more dastardly half square (or quarter square) triangles to make and trim this week and we got to put together some of the units we've made in past weeks.  It's starting to look like something and that gets me excited!

You know who wasn't excited?

Lily.

Lily is sad.

She took over the box from my most recent Cat Lady delivery (with some items still in it, of course) and gave me this sad face for the better part of the hour I worked on the units above.  Of course, she took a little time out of her busy schedule of glares and sad looks to chew on the plastic plant in the adorable cat-shaped planter you see peeking out next to her behind and then took additional offence when I told her to stop that.

You can kinda see, behind the units above, my covered wool pressing mat.  I didn't get a full photo of it completed, but I did cover it last week and it worked nicely.  I'll try to remember to get a better photo for the next post.

Also this week I made time to start stuffing the remaining cat toys that have been sitting around here for forever...

(Those empty Cat Lady boxes are the perfect size for so many things - not just my cats!)

I have four boxes filled and a few more in an overflow tub.  Next up I need to add catnip, a bit more stuffing and then sew them shut.  Note to future self: don't cut so many at once!

Lily, of course, got involved here as well...

And of course, I had to tell her to stop eating it this time as well.  (Not our first stuffing rodeo!)  I do have another photo, much like this one, only she's giving me another stink-face, but in an effort to stay on her good side, I've decided to give you a cuter one because I'm not sure I could handle an angry Lily!

Speaking of the cat rescue and my efforts there, I got to see a video of the carrier covers I've made in action.  Here's a screenshot of their video:

(photo credit: Saved By Zade)

The rescue fairly recently purchased and refurbished a veterinary clinic in a nearby town to use for their private spay, neuter and other rescue surgical needs, as well as store supplies and house a small number of rescue kitties (most are in foster care).  Prior to the clinic, kitties were transported for all of these things and the covers were necessary, but with the opening of the clinic, transport decreased.

But then...

A few weeks ago we got some really nasty storms.  A couple of tornados touched down.  The winds and/or tornado got the roof of the shelter.  As soon as it was safe, volunteers (because we're ALL volunteers) were up there getting a tarp down.  Mother nature decided on another nasty storm (this time no twirling winds, but lots of rain and wind still) a few days later and the tarp didn't stand a chance.

Of course, kitties were evacuated first.  (They're all safe and sound.)  Equipment that could go also went.  Plastic sheeting was unfurled by the mile to cover what couldn't go or be moved to a safer space.  And then the fundraising and damage assessment and insurance fun began.  But the damage meant the clinic work came to an immediate halt.

Kitties will now be transported for medical care again.  So that means breaking out the carrier covers.  And while I'm excited for them to be used, I'm so sad about all that has happened to need them.

(And if you feel like donating to help, Saved By Zade website is found here, but you can also find them on Facebook where they have a bigger presence.  Monetary donations are accepted in many forms, but they also have a wishlist on both Amazon and Chewy where you can order specific items they need and they'll be shipped directly to the rescue - they have a non-tornado-damaged delivery address!)

I wasn't there for the removal and tarping, but I have been there twice in the last week to unload truckloads of...

(photo credit: Saved By Zade)

They were able to purchase a LOT of cat food at a huge discount and this is where some of the money that is donated goes.  Of course, once it's in the U-Haul truck and driven to the rescue site, it takes muscles to unload and get it moved into the (useable) clinic space.  By hand.  The setup is not one that allows even a handcart/dolly to do much good, never mind a handy forklift (not that they have one).  The hubby and I were there last Sunday for a few hours for truck #1 and a few hours yesterday for truck #2.  We're really hoping there won't be a truck #3 next week - storage space is GONE and we're kinda tired!  But the kitties are going to be eating well for a while.

(They also got other kinds of food, litter and some medical supplies and I'm so excited for all the kitties this will help, I forget about the aches I have as a result.  I think it was about 7 pallets of items in total.)

Anyways...this took up a bit of my sewing time.  Not that I probably would have been sewing anyways.  Since you all know I'm slacking lately.

Instead I'm reading.  Not a bad hobby, right?  I mean, I could be doing much worse!

This book was on my want to read list because someone somewhere recommended it.  When I got my Christmas gift and spent it on books, this was one.  But I can't figure out where the recommendation came from...usually I save them until I've read them just because I'm like that.  Oh well.

Let's start with that I fairly enjoyed this book, once I got past all the name-dropping that ran through the whole book and stopped trying to figure out/remember who all the names were.

Set in the early days of motion pictures (still silent with musicians providing the music in each theater), a young girl decides she is going to be an actress and just does it.  There are a few key people in places to help her along, but she makes it sound almost like she just walked in and said "here I am" and they said "okay."

She does work hard and is as much a part of the production decisions as many others who are not on the screen but since they're basically making things up as they go along, it makes sense that she was this involved.  And this part, the development of the industry, was more interesting than all the names, though it wasn't as informative as I might have liked.  (The focus was clearly on her.)

Eventually she becomes the star she desires to be, but her personal life is something of a disaster and her generally "good girl" behavior doesn't help much.  And then, after making just a few films with sound, she retires.

From the very start, she talks about the fairies that her Scottish grandmother taught her about, and her collection of miniatures that are for the fairies.  (I'm not sure she fully believes they exist, but has a healthy respect for folklore that may or may not be true.)  Eventually, at the suggestion of her father, she uses some of her movie-making fortune to build a castle to house them.  She hires an architect and designers and a palace is built.  When the stock market crashes, she takes the castle on the road and visits many towns across the US, charging just a dime, and donates the money to charity to help people in need during the depression.

The castle in the blurb is what really made me want to read this.  And it was really just a tool to start most of the chapters, as the actress, in her old age, is telling the story of the castle.  But it quickly lapses into HER history.  Eventually her life catches up to the construction and tour, but it took a while.

And here's the thing: the actress in the book is entirely fictional.  But based on an ACTUAL ACTRESS WHO BUILT A CASTLE and took it on tour.  So here's the part where I go "What the...???"  Let's just say it lost a star in the rating scale for being a false biography of nobody when it could have been an actual biography of someone.  Or at least historical fiction, you know?

But it was interesting and I did enjoy it.

With that, I had high hopes that the next book would live up to expectations.

It did not.

Originally written in German, maybe I just don't get it as well as I should?  The blurb says a young woman loses her boyfriend to complications of a broken leg and then "question a past that has haunted her for years."

Mostly I was trying to figure out what was going on most of the time.  Time seemed to shift and blend.  She seemed angry and anxious.  And I'm still not entirely sure what in her past is haunting her.  (I kinda do, but I can't even really explain it.)  I also don't think she actually questioned it or even faced it or whatever.

I kept reading because it was divided into four parts.  I kept hoping one of them would see her drag herself out of the depression and we'd have a happier ending, or at least some sort of resolution, but it was just another stream of consciousness-style ramble.

After I finished, I read some reviews and a lot of people had positive things to say.  (A few were as confused as I am.)  I guess this one just wasn't for me.

Moving on, I'm partway into the next book and it's okay.  More on that next week.

Lily says I'm done now.

Happy quilting (and reading)!

Katie