Irish Chain progress

I am working on my Irish Chain table runner and making some good progress on this long weekend.  I started with this design:

 and then I bought this yummy pile of fabrics:  Farmhouse Retreat from Andover Fabrics.

Then I cut strips and started putting them together in 9-patches.

Once they are together in rows, I join the rows to make a block:

I build some sashing strips to join the blocks and get my first MAJOR four-patch.

Whew!!  that's a lot of little squares!!!  Especially when they only finish to 3/4"!!  But they are totally fun to make, and actually very easy since the whole thing is strip pieced.

So then I had to make another four-patch, cuz there are gonna be three of them in this quilt.

Now I am considering if I need to do another whole set of four blocks or if just two more would make it long enough.  Hmmmm, what do you think?
Now, some serious self criticism -- I am not crazy about using the blue and white plaid in there.  I think the scale of the plaid is too large for the size of these squares.  I wish I had used a solid light blue instead (which is what I originally designed).  There was one in this line of fabrics but I couldn't find it and ended up using the next best thing, which was this plaid.  Not so sure it was a good choice.  oh well.   This design will be published in the Feb issue of Quilter's World next year.

Back to the sewing machine to finish these blocks and do the border.  Suggestions are always welcome.  Hehe, wait till you see the piping!  LOL