November Placemats

We got a new table!  Well, kinda.  We bought an old table at a yard sale for super cheap, spent weeks and weeks sanding it whenever we had free time, and gave it several coats of finish.  I am kicking myself for not taking any "before" pictures.  Oh well.  Now we have a really nice looking, sturdy oak table in our kitchen.  Much better than the last table we had - and the best part is that it came with six chairs that are NOT falling apart.  They will be our project next summer...
However, having a newer, bigger table means that our tablecloths don't really fit anymore.  The first time we sat down to eat at it, the hubby asked where the placemats were and we could only find one.  Oops.
So I decided to take a short break from the king quilt I am working on to make placemats.  I am totally okay with the fact that all our old ones have disappeared.  :)  These placemats took all of two evenings to put together!

 Since it was, like, November 1st when I started pulling fabrics for these, I tried to pick a lot of "November-ish" (but not necessarily "Thanksgiving") fabrics from my stash.  I was going for brown/green/orange.  Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of orange.  This is what I came up with.

I used this special batting I got from Madame Samm when I won this giveaway.  I threw away the paper, so I have no idea what kind of batting it is, or what it is supposed to be for.  It is definitely not like normal quilt batting.  It is thick and stiff.  I figured it would work pretty well for placemats.  It didn't give me any trouble.

I quilted with straight lines, because I have learned that they are less bumpy and less likely to cause spilling when I put my cup on top of them. :)
For the back, I had JUST enough of this "Pumpkins Gone Wild" fabric to fit one placemat.  The hubby hates this fabric, but I kinda like it for some reason.  To each his own.  When I figured out that the placemat was about the size of a fat quarter, I set out to find a peice of fabric that was - in MY opinion, the ugliest I had.  I came up with this brown print.  And now it is all used up!

I still need to get better at machine binding, though.  I REALLY want to be good at it because it is so much faster!  I guess I should practice some more.
And there you have it!  I have every intention to make a new set of placemats for each month now.  Someday, hopefully.  They are great stash busters!