Today’s Quilter BOM

When I was asked to design the new Today’s Quilter Block of the Month I’ll admit to being both proud and nervous, seeing as I was following on from my quilt hero Jen Kingwell! Jen’s BOM was absolutely stunning so I had my work cut out!

I had asked the TQ editor (another Jen) whether she needed any short articles for the magazine as I have recently realised how much I enjoy writing. Jen said maybe I could combine this with the new BOM and so I put my thinking cap on.

Everyday my hubby, Jonathan, and I take a walk around our seven acre field, here at Shangri la Farm. We love nature and wildlife and enjoy observing the seasonal changes throughout the year.

Often I get inspiration for my quilt designs from my natural surroundings and so I thought I could take this as the basis for the new BOM. Every month I will base the blocks on something happening in the natural environment and write about it in a short column called ‘a month in the country’.

Jonathan is an amazing wildlife photographer with a fantastic archive, and so, as an extra treat, every month a few of his photos accompany the feature. Hence the slightly cringey photo of us together! Hopefully it’s only really cringey to us!

As the first month was going to be published in October I chose autumn leaves as the subject and designed this variation of a maple leaf block.

Every month there are two blocks, the main one and a variation. This scrappy block is the variation but actually I think I like it the best.

Over the next 13 months the BOM will build into my interpretation of an updated Baltimore Album quilt, with blocks inspired by the world around me. I am very excited to share all the beautiful blocks I have already made or plan to make!

And I really hope some of you will take part in the BOM along with me, as well as enjoy reading my little musings every month. I am certainly enjoying writing them!