The "Good Earth" Quilt - Fruit Orchard sneak peek...

This is the fruit orchard for the lower right corner of the medallion square for the "Good Earth" quilt I am designing for my parents' 40th anniversary this month.

The pieces are glue-prepped and glue-basted, ready to be put on the background square in anticipation of the hand applique.  When designing and constructing such a large central medallion, I find it easier to prep in units.

The blueberries are TEENIE-TINY!  I put a penny in the above picture to give you a reference.  My parents have TONS of blueberries off their bushes every year.

There will be embroidery to do after the hand stitching and soaking to remove the glues.  For now, the cherry leaves are hovering, ghost like, awaiting their embroidered stems.

Some of these pieces are so tiny...my clumsy fingers can't pick up and manipulate the freezer paper and little pieces of fabric without my trusty forceps.  I would be so lost without them!

I prepped a lot of applique before going east to see my in-laws for Thanksgiving.  I had hoped to finish stitching and embroidering this central medallion so that I could mail it to my parents this week in time to get there before their anniversary this Sunday.  But there was so much to do while in Philadelphia.  I really needed some fabric therapy, but there was no time.  Steve's mom was home following her surgery on her broken neck...vertibrate were fused, etc.

I hate gifting the promise of a completed project, but things have been so hectic for the past months that it can't be avoided.

I hope to post the whole medallion this weekend, then email them the link so that they can see it...kind of an anniversary "reveal."  I think they would better be able to see the pictures through my blog instead of trying to open pictures in their limited Internet email (they have satellite Internet service, and it is AWFUL!).

I had wanted to continue posting bits of the medallion before showing the whole thing, but I think I have to use my blog post as a way to communicate the quilt with my parents, who are 700 miles away.

Any Auburn fans out there?  I did get to see the last quarter of the "Iron Bowl" (the annual college football game between Alabama and Auburn, my alma mater).  I was trying to root for 'Bama, since they were going for their third national title in a row, but it was hard to not be a little proud of the "team of destiny," which is what people are calling the 2013 Auburn season now.  Unbelievable!

I hope your Thanksgiving was nice...it has not hit me yet that December is here...

In stitches,
Teresa  :o)