Back Among the Lollypop Forest: Blocks 5 and 9

I like this part of the Lollypop Tree blocks the best: laying out the color scheme in those great big petals.

The part I like the least, in the cutting and choosing category, is the little circles all around.  I chose Block Five to start back in again, because there only a few circles and they were all jumbo.

Block Ten, as labeled in the pattern, has a few more circles. (I call this my block nine.) But two down, seven to go.  I’ve got to stop now and get the binding on the gingham quilt (which STILL doesn’t have a proper name) in order to tuck away a few loose ends before the arrival of Barbara and grandchildren.  I went to JoAnn’s yesterday and bought two more boxes of applique pins.  Since my goal this summer is to get these blocks all cut and pinned, and it’s taking one box for two blocks, I may be running there again–or else I’ll resort to the wicked long pins which stab you a lot when you’ve got it under the machine–or maybe pin with the stabbers, then change out.  Playing it by ear.

And what book propelled me through these last couple of days?

On Canaan’s Side, by Sebastian Barry.

A lovely quote: “Bill is gone. What is the sound of an eighty-nine-year-old heart breaking? It might not be much more than silence, and certainly a small slight sound.”  Narrated by an elderly woman, it is her story, and the story of the people she loved.  I listened to this intently as not only is the story interesting and well-told, the language and imagery is inventive and descriptive.

I thought of my own mother, and the people she’s said good-bye to.  And her mother, and then her grandmother, who came over from England, leaving that land behind forever.  I guess all of our lives could be an interesting novel, if only the right author told our story.  And this story is told by exactly the right author.

I loved listening to it, as the narrator gave shade and color to the characters, perfectly intoning the Irish inflection, as well as the Greek shopkeeper in the later section.  It’s not a long novel to listen to–only 7+ hours–a relief after the last one I listened to, which was fifteen-plus hours (with irritating piano music off and on).