I’m super excited to be working with Banyan Batiks Mod Graphics this month and I have created a fresh new modern quilt design for you!

Batiks are sometimes dismissed by the modern quilters as too traditional so I was happy to see this new line from Banyan Batiks to show that batiks can be anything you want them to be.

For this design, I switched up the usual white or light background fabric that is traditionally used. I picked a solid black that will let these batiks really pop! You may choose the background you prefer but I encourage you to give this a try. As many of you already know, black background in a quilt block is not all that modern…think of the incredible graphic quality of Amish quilts! They have been using black as a background long before modern quilters decided to do the same.

The block I designed for this quilt is called the Mid Mod Shoofly. The traditional shoofly block is one of my favorites and I thought it would be fun to adapt it a bit and make something that felt a bit more modern. I played around a bit with the dimensions while still staying inside a regular quilt block design.

This quilt is created with 8 of my mid-mod shoofly blocks and 8 squares of Banyan Batiks Mod Graphics. The finished measurement is 48″ x 52″. You can easily size up the quilt with the addition of more blocks and rows if you choose.

Mid Mod Shoofly 48″ x 52″ quilt

fabric

1½ yds black background fabric

½ yd each of 4 different Banyan Batiks Mod Graphics fabrics

½ yd of coordinating Banyan Batiks Mod Graphics fabric for binding

3 yds of coordinating Banyan Batiks Mod Graphics fabric for backing

52″ x 56″ piece of batting

thread

thread for piecing (I chose a dark gray)

thread for quilting (I chose a heavier weight yellow gold)

Tomorrow we’ll go over fabric cutting and preparation needed before starting your Banyan Batiks Mod Graphics mid mod shoofly blocks.