Vintage Holiday QAL Week 5: Blocks 9 & 10

Only one more week of blocks left to go after this one -- I can hardly believe it! Our local Joann's has a wonderful selection of Denyse Schmidt fabrics, and I was delighted to see that they were carrying her new Richmond collection last week. I had to buy at least one print -- the rust colored fabric with the flowers and scroll work -- to use in one of my blocks this week, and I ended up adding it to block 9. For block 10, I tried to once again tie in a few more Christmas colors. I spend probably twice as much time each week choosing the fabrics as I do actually sewing the blocks together. In any project, I always believe that the pattern is a foundation to build on -- it's the fabrics and colors that make the piece come alive. Here are the close-ups...

Block 9

Block 10

I'd tell you what colors I'm leaning toward to finish the last two blocks, but heaven knows I'll probably change my mind ten times before next weekend, so we'll let it go for now. I'm also starting to think about what colors I want to use for the sashing, border, and binding. I'd like to use red or green for at least one of those and possibly a grey print too. Options, options...

Here are all my blocks so far, and you wouldn't believe how long it took me to set this photo up. There's a good strong breeze blowing through our backyard every evening, so laying the blocks down means chasing them from one end of the lot to the other. This was the best idea I could come up with tonight...not perfect, but at least you can get an idea of what everything looks like. It will be lovely to have all these sewn together in two weeks. I can't wait!

I'm so happy to hear how much you're all enjoying this QAL. We're definitely going to have to do another one of these after this one!

Linking up to the Let's Get Acquainted Monday Link-up.