The Not a BOM, Block of the Month
I love the idea of a block of the month (BOM)- it guarantees that every month you make something, that you partake in a little creativity. Unfortunately not everything goes to plan: sometimes you discover that the construction methods really aren’t for you (been there), or the suggested color scheme just isn’t working (yet it looked so good on the mock up!), or (my personal favorite) you run out of fabric near the end and can’t order more. Who hasn’t had one of these experiences with a BOM program? And of course, the more you experience them the less likely you are to want to participate in another one. But what if we could change all of that…
Do you remember the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books, where you could read it a hundred times and simply by making a different choice here or there, you would end up with a different story each time? Well why can’t we apply the same idea to a BOM? A “Choose Your Own BOM” if you will. You wouldn’t be trapped with a single pattern, you could make multiple choices as you progressed and personalize your quilt so it worked for you, and for that matter you would be able to reuse the pattern again and again simply making different choices each time to create a new quilt design. And so—
So how exactly does this work? First you choose if you want to go with a specific color scheme or opt for a scrappy look (first choice). Then you are given a “map” or layout for the quilt. While the basic layout stays the same for everyone, the blocks that you choose to use in each slot are entirely up to you (second choice). Each month a suggestion will be made for how many blocks of each size should be made, though again that is entirely up to you (third choice). If you have a busy month, just make one small block, have a month with a lot of spare time, opt to make two months worth of blocks.
Not sure how this would actually look? Here are two examples using the Choose Your Own BOM program.
With 30 different blocks to choose from, there are so many different ways this BOM can come together. So if you are interested in doing a BOM that isn’t really a BOM, click here to learn more about the ‘Choose Your Own BOM’.
And while we are talking about planning for next year, I prepared an easy to fill out WIP or UFO tracker to help you see what you have in progress and what you want to continue working on through the end of this year and into next year.
