Page 70 - Patchwork & Quilting - UK (February 2020)

REGULAR // book club

BOOK CLUB

with Arlene McLeish

MORNINGS ON MAIN
by Jodi Thomas
For February’s book, I’ve Something that I found unusual in the first portrayal of

chosen a very recent one the quilt shop was the description of the smell of it. In
that was published in many quilting novels we have a graphic description of
2018; Mornings on Main, the colours and textures but here Thomas describes
by Jodi Thomas. She is the ‘lavender soap’ from the hands of the quilting bee
an established author stitchers, the ‘lemon wax’ on the counter, the ‘smell of
who has written over fi fty cotton, fresh and new, blended with the hint of dyes’ and
romantic novels set in the ‘scent of the oil’ on the Singer Featherweight.
the American West and
this is her fi rst venture I really enjoyed the many snippets of the varied quilts
into a quilting novel. It’s that hang in the shop and I would have loved to know
a light read and it’s set in more about them. Thomas doesn’t just describe the
contemporary Texas, in lovely colours used on many of these but also provides

the small fictional town of small back stories and I wonder how many of us have
Laurel Springs, and there similar stories behind the making of our own quilts?
are some interesting twists Some of the stories were almost heartbreaking in the
and plot turns. way in which they reflected real life; the way in which

we can sometimes let petty squabbles and arguments
Jillian James, a drifter, arrives in the town and doesn’t plan ruin relationships with family and friends. For me, this
to stay more than a few days. Her purpose for visiting is then raises the question of what exactly do we mean by
to gather some information about her estranged father family? Is it the group that we’re born into, or is it the
whose abandonment of her when she was a teenager has group that we choose to surround ourselves with?
destroyed her faith in family and relationships. In need
of money she answers a job advert in the window of the Unlike many such novels, this one deals with the harsh

newspaper office, placed by Connor Larady, the newspaper daily realities of life with Alzheimer’s. Gram cannot

editor, town mayor and a single parent. The job is to work remember whether she’s put sugar into her tea but can
in the local quilt shop but, intriguingly, the role is not to remember minute details associated with the quilts in
sell fabric or teach quilting but rather to catalogue and her shop. For me, the description of Gram’s confusion ‘I
inventory the contents. The owner, Connor’s mother Gram, can’t remember … It’s all leaking out of my head like sand
has recently developed Alzheimer’s and the shop will have does in an hourglass’ is softened by the comfort she
to be shut very soon. Jillian’s task is an immense one; we’re finds when Jillian places Gram’s quilt upon her, saying

never told the exact number of quilts that are in the shop ‘Here are your memories … they’re been right here all
but she logs details of two or three every day over a period along. They’ll never go away. They’re all around you’.
of three months. The sense of love and security provided by the quilt is
immeasurable.
As Jillian listens to Gram narrate a brief history of each
quilt, she takes photographs and makes notes, fi nishing the To some degree, the plot isn’t fully resolved at the end
process with a small 2" blue square stitched onto the back of but, for me, that’s very true to life. Thomas has written
the quilt giving the maker’s name, the name of the quilt and a sequel to this book, which isn’t based on quilting, but
some brief details. As she writes up the details, she starts to nonetheless, if you enjoyed ‘Mornings on Main’, you may
write short articles for the local newspaper, which gradually well be interested in the sequel.
start to increase local interest in the shop. When Gram falls,
as a result of her dementia and is incapacitated, it falls to One of the questions that this novel raises is how do
Jillian to continue the process alone. we store our memories? Do you keep a diary, or a
photograph album and do you label your quilts? I have to
But as Jillian gets to know Connor and Gram she has to admit that I very rarely label any of my quilts, but having
ask herself whether to continue with her nomadic life or read this novel, I’m resolved to make sure that I do label
whether to settle for a future with people who need her. Will them far more, not just for my own benefit, but for those

the drive to find out more about her own personal history be around me.

stronger than the love she starts to feel for her new friends? Arlene

70 British Patchwork & Quilting FEBRUARY 2020