I got a good start this weekend on new projects.  I had been working on the Swoon quilt for 5 weeks straight – it was time to change things up!

I completed the “two” blocks from my 2013 DM BOM project.

Here’s the completed block, a cute basket block designed by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree Quilts.

As I mentioned on my last post, I am going to make two blocks each month.  If I don’t have quite enough fabric from the BOM, I can easily supplement with my scraps from my Avalon Bouquet quilt I completed earlier this year.  Click here to see that post.

I originally miscalculated my long background strips and failed to cut two of them.  So, when I was putting together the blocks, I had to make a small piecing fix to make it all work.  Here’s my bonus block, where you can see the extra seam in the background border strip:

It’s not very noticeable at all.  Here are both blocks:

My camera has some kind of scratch or film on the lens, so my pictures are turning out a little blurry.  I’m going to have to figure something out soon.

Another new project that I started this weekend was the Rally Quilt.  The pattern is found in Sweet Celebrations by Lissa Alexander (picture taken from Amazon):

Inside is the ‘recipe’ for the Rally Quilt, pattern designed by Melissa Corry (of Happy Quilting blog fame).  Here is a link to one of her blog posts where she talks about her own quilts made with this pattern.  She made one for her husband and modified the pattern a bit and made one for herself.  They are wonderful and her applique school logos are fantastic!

My Rally quilt is going to a new HS graduate that will be attending UCLA in the fall.  I live in Texas, so I have never been to UCLA and I have never seen any official school colors in person, so I had to do my best guess from online sites and Bella Solids to come up with my selections.  Here are a couple of pictures from a Campus Clothing website:

Here’s my first block.  The quilt calls for 20 blocks to make the throw size blanket.  I think it is going to come out great.  In my attempt to take a better picture, I have this laid out in front of a glass door.  It is fading the colors a bit, but I’ll share more when I have a few more blocks completed:

How’s your summer going?

Thanks for visiting!

Jennifer