Block of the Month with a Twist!
I’m kicking off a year-long Block of the Month adventure — but this one comes with a fun twist! Each month, we’ll use a spinner to decide that month’s color or fabric challenge. I will be creating the spinner with both colors and fabrics, and some may contain both, but I would love some suggestions. Scrappy is the goal with this Block of the Month.
Spinning for Color Choice or fabric style
No two spins are ever quite the same… or maybe they are! 😉 Colors and fabrics might repeat. This gives us the perfect opportunity to see how different fabrics and patterns can make the same color look completely fresh and new. Fabrics could be any of the following: batiks, florals, plaids, tone-on-tones, reproduction prints, or novelty prints! I’m still fine-tuning the “rules”, and I’d love your input, so feel free to send me a message with your ideas or suggestions. The 2026 challenge adds a fun, creative spark to our Block of the Month theme — keeping each month inspiring, unpredictable, and full of scrappy surprises.
Block of the Month Details
Each block will measure 12 inches finished, therefore making it easy to mix, match, and play with layout ideas as we go. I’m also playing with some design ideas for the borders and sashing, so the final quilt will have a creative finish that ties all those scrappy blocks together beautifully. This gives me just over a month to play with designs before we start.
Fabrics
For me, I plan to keep my background fabrics very similar in value — whether that ends up being light or dark — so the blocks feel cohesive even as the colors change. I need to check to see what I have more of: Light vs. Dark.
Once the challenge wheel is finalized, I’ll be diving into my stash to pull scrappy fabrics for each color category. Of course, I might just let creativity take the lead each month and see where the spinner lands — sometimes the best results come from a little spontaneity! The challenge for me will be the spins that focus on fabric types. The reproduction fabrics and novelty fabrics will have me pulling deep or checking with my quilty friends nearby!
Scrappy Block of the Month
This will be a scrappy-style project, perfect for using up leftover fabrics and giving each block its own unique personality. I’ll be sharing a monthly post with my progress, the color, and/or the fabric type of the month, along with a few ideas for inspiration and step-by-step directions. The block will then be added to the Quilt Block Library. This page on the website provides additional options if you would like to make your quilt larger.
If you’d like to join in, I encourage you to go scrappy too — mix and match fabrics, embrace surprises, and most of all, have fun with it! There are no wrong choices here, just creative ones.
Who’s ready to spin the wheel and sew along? To stay updated, sign up with your email below. You can also join the Quilting with Tamara Facebook page.
Until next time.
BOM with a Twist