Picnic Placemats

After making a table runner with Melody Miller's Picnic fabric, and a quilt, I used my scraps to make a set of placemats.

I started with a 12" economy block for the center.  To make these blocks, I drafted the design on freezer paper and used the "paperless" paper piecing method.  This is my first time to use this method, and I found it very helpful, especially for large, simple blocks like this.  I added 3" HSTs and 3"x6" flying geese to either side to bring the placemats to 12"x18".

Since I was working with scraps, I did not have a clear plan from the start. I hoped to make at least four placemats, but with some variations in fabric placements I was able to make a total of 6.

You can see in the last one that I also had to vary the binding fabric.

The quilting gave me a chance to practice FMQ on my new machine (a Janome 8900).  I used a ruler for the center squares and large triangles.

I'm linking up with crazy mom quilts for Finish It Up Friday.