Fun Placemats for Outside

Let me begin with "I love Pinterest"!  I enjoy browsing, pinning, and gathering inspiration. Often, I get so inspired that I just have to do that, and by do that, I mean now... So other projects get put on the back burner (or in my case, the back corner of the table, or the box in the closet, or the little space on the floor, or on my daughter's bed, or...) and I dive in. 

This is what I've whipped up, courtesy of pinning inspiration from this website, who just so happened to also have a tutorial.

Placemats! for outside, with pockets to hold your paper plates and utensils so they don't blow away! How genius is this? Why didn't I think of this before??? I love eating outside! I hate chasing the dishes!

I had leftover batting from my mom's purple quilt, and I got 11 placemat size pieces out of it. Then I had to dig through my scrap fabric bin and find some pieces big enough, which, lucky me, I had. But even if I didn't have any pieces big enough, I would have pieced them together, because I had a bee in my bonnet, and I was making these!

This set I'm keeping for myself. All of these fabrics are leftover from a quilt I made for my best friend when she turned 40, and I've never used the scraps in anything else, because i just couldn't bear to break them up. 

These are the next four that are finished. Not really a set, as there is no continuity to them, except they all have the same plain green backing fabric. 

And these are the final three, tops only. I still have to assemble these, but I wanted to share how much fun these have been! These three will be backed in solid navy. 

I didn't have to buy any supplies to make them. Leftover batting, leftover fabric from other projects, and I have lots of thread!  No upfront costs makes me happy!