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A block of the month — BOM, in quilting shorthand — is a year-long project where you make one quilt block each month. By December you have twelve blocks ready to set into a quilt. It's the most forgiving way to make a sampler, and it's been the backbone of guild programming for decades.
A block of the month — BOM if you're typing — is a quilt project where you make one block each month over twelve months. The designer or shop drops a new pattern at the beginning of each month, you piece that month's block, and by the end of the year you have twelve blocks ready to set into a sampler quilt. It's the gentlest possible way to build a real heirloom.
Block of the month programs were running in quilt shops decades before they moved online. The format took root in the 1980s when quilt shops realized they could keep customers coming back monthly by selling them a pattern (and fabric kit) for one block a month. You'd pay a small monthly fee — eight dollars, ten dollars — and you'd get a coordinated pattern and fabric bundle. Twelve months later you had a quilt top you couldn't have ordered all at once.
The model was so good that quilt magazines picked it up. "Quilters Newsletter" and "American Patchwork & Quilting" both ran year-long BOM programs in their pages — twelve blocks released across twelve issues — and quilters joined in by the thousands. The blocks were usually a coordinated sampler: a mix of foundation blocks, star blocks, and traditional patterns, all designed to set together into a single finished quilt.
When quilting moved online, the BOM format moved with it. Free online BOMs proliferated. Sandy Klop, Lori Holt, and Pat Sloan have all run popular free BOMs over the years. Major sites like Moda Bakeshop, Fat Quarter Shop, and Connecting Threads run multi-month BOM programs every year. Shops still run paid BOMs too — typically with a fabric kit subscription mailed monthly.
What makes BOMs special is the pace. A quilt-along compresses a whole quilt into six or eight weeks; a BOM stretches the same project across a year. That month-by-month rhythm matches the rhythm of life — you sew one block during a quiet weekend, you set it aside, you come back next month for the next one. Quilters who can't commit to weekly QALs thrive in BOMs.
Twelve months is a long time. Before you commit, look at the sample quilt and ask yourself: am I going to love this in November when I'm tired? BOMs that pick a single strong theme — "reproduction Civil War prints", "low-volume modern stars", "a year of farmhouse animals" — tend to be more sustainable than BOMs that change style every month. Pick something you'll still recognize as yours when the project gets long.
Free BOMs (designer's blog or social-media releases) cost you nothing but you buy your own fabric. Pattern-only paid BOMs send you the monthly pattern PDF, you still buy fabric separately. Full-kit BOMs ship you a fabric bundle and the pattern every month — this is the most expensive (typically $20–$40 a month) but also the easiest, since you don't have to source fabric yourself. Decide based on how much hunting you want to do.
For non-kit BOMs, you'll get a fabric requirements list at the start of the program. This is the moment to buy your fabric. Some BOMs need a coordinated palette and you have to think it through carefully; others are scrappy and pull from your existing stash. If you're buying new, look for a coordinated fabric collection from a single designer — Moda fabric collections are designed to mix and match. Pre-wash if that's your habit. Store in a project bin labeled with the BOM name.
When the first block drops, sew it that week. Not next month — that week. The single biggest predictor of finishing a BOM is whether you finished Block 1 on time. Once you fall behind on the first block, the second one piles up, then the third, and by April you have a stack of three unfinished blocks and you're not enjoying the project anymore. Make it your rule: this month's block this month.
BOMs ride or die on color planning. Because the project stretches over a year, your fabric needs to coordinate from January's block to December's. The safest move is to buy a coordinated fabric collection (a designer's bundle from Moda, Riley Blake, or Art Gallery) at the start of the program and use only those fabrics for the whole year. This gives you automatic color cohesion. The riskier (and more rewarding) move is to pull from your stash — but this requires you to have a real value plan: lights, mediums, darks, accents. Decide which fabric will play which role before you cut your first block, and stick with it through December.
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Designer releases one free pattern per month on her blog or social media. No registration, no kit. Popular with experienced quilters who source their own fabric.
A local quilt shop runs a BOM program with monthly fabric kits delivered or picked up. Most expensive option but everything is pre-curated and you don't have to source fabric yourself.
A quilt magazine publishes one block per issue over a year. Pattern comes with the magazine subscription; fabric is yours to find. Less popular now than in the 1990s but still occasionally run.
Each month's block is a different traditional pattern — Ohio Star, Pinwheel, Bear Paw, etc. By the end of the year you have a true sampler quilt showing twelve different patterns. The original BOM format and still the most popular.
Every month is the same block, but in different fabric colorways. The finished quilt is a study in fabric variation rather than pattern variation. Less common but visually striking when done well.
A BOM where you don't know what the finished quilt will look like — see the Mystery Quilt guide. Hybrid of the BOM format and the mystery format.
BOM stands for "block of the month". It's a year-long quilt program where you make one block each month, ending the year with twelve blocks ready to set into a sampler quilt. It's one of the most common formats in quilt shop programming and online quilting community.
A full BOM runs twelve months — one block per month. Some shorter BOMs run six months (six-block samplers) and some run eighteen or twenty-four months (larger quilts with more blocks). The standard is twelve.
Many BOMs are free — designers release one pattern per month on their blog or social media at no cost. Paid BOMs include shop-run programs (which usually include a fabric kit) and subscription patterns from sites like Fat Quarter Shop or Connecting Threads. Cost ranges from $0 (free patterns, your own fabric) to $40+ per month (full kit shipments).
Your local quilt shop is the first place to ask — most shops run one or two BOM programs at any time. Online, follow your favorite designers' newsletters and watch for January announcements; most yearly BOMs start with the new year. Major sites like Fat Quarter Shop, Moda Bakeshop, and Pat Sloan's blog all run free BOMs regularly.
For a 12-block sampler with finished blocks around 12", expect to need 6–10 yards total — about 4–6 yards for the blocks themselves, 2–3 yards for sashing and borders, and 6 yards for backing. Specific BOMs publish exact requirements at the start. Pre-buy slightly more than the pattern calls for as insurance against cutting mistakes.
Yes — beginner BOMs are common, and the slow pace is friendlier to new quilters than a six-week QAL. Look for BOMs that advertise "beginner friendly" or "all levels welcome". Avoid BOMs that feature curves, Y-seams, or paper piecing in the early months. Most sampler-format BOMs cycle from easier blocks early to harder ones later, which gives a beginner time to build skills.
NiftyFifty has hosted 30+ quilt block swaps since 1997. Browse our archive or join an upcoming swap.
Browse quilt swaps →A quilt-along — QAL, if you're typing — is when a group of quilters sews the same pattern on the same schedule, sharing progress, troubleshooting together, and finishing within a few weeks of each other. It's part class, part book club, part group cheer.
A mystery quilt is one where you sew installment by installment without knowing what the finished quilt will look like. You cut the pieces the designer tells you to cut, you sew the units she tells you to sew, and the picture only emerges in the last clue. It's part patchwork, part puzzle, and entirely thrilling.
You make a handful of identical blocks and mail them to strangers. They make a handful and mail them to you. By the time the packages stop arriving, you have a quilt's worth of blocks you couldn't have made on your own — and friends in three states you didn't know you needed.
An online quilting bee is a small group — usually six to twelve quilters — where each month, one member is the "queen" and receives a block from every other member. Twelve months and you have a quilt's worth of blocks made by friends from across the country.
Pin the finished block to a design wall (or a flannel-backed board, or the back of a closet door) and photograph it. Save the photos in a folder labeled with the BOM name. By month six you'll have six photos and you can stand back and see how the quilt is coming together — even though it hasn't been assembled yet.
After each photo, fold the block carefully and stack it in a project bin. Tag each block with the month it's from (a sticky note or scrap paper with "March" written on it). This sounds silly until you're in September trying to remember whether the block in your hand was from April or May. The tags help with final assembly.
Most BOMs publish a setting pattern with the final block — instructions for how to arrange the twelve blocks, what sashing to add, what borders to include. Some BOMs let you choose your own setting; others prescribe it. Either way, the assembly phase is where the project becomes a quilt instead of a stack of blocks. Lay everything out on the floor or a design wall before sewing, and don't be afraid to rearrange.
After twelve months of work, the finishing is the reward. Some BOMs include quilting suggestions; some leave it up to you. Whether you quilt it yourself or send it to a longarmer, take a real "finished quilt photo" once it's bound — drape it over a porch railing in good light, get a good angle. This is a year of your life. Document it.
Catch up on the next quiet weekend you have. Most BOMs publish the entire year's patterns as they're released, so a missed month is a missed month — not a forever-gone month. Plenty of BOM participants run one or two months behind through the whole year and finish in January or February of the following year. That's normal.
Most BOMs publish a setting pattern in the final month — instructions for how to assemble the twelve blocks into a quilt with sashing, borders, and a layout. Follow the setting pattern, or design your own arrangement. Then quilt and bind. Many quilters send their finished BOM tops to a longarmer because the year of work feels worth the investment.
Real quilters, real deadlines. Here's what's open to join.
