Quilt 59: "Under The Australian Sun" Placemats - DONE!

In last week's post, I mentioned a Robert Kaufman (fabric manufacturer) design.  Well, here's another one - this one called "Under The Australian Sun" and features clusters of gum leaves:

(Click any picture on this blog to see a larger image)

I'm a big fan of Robert Kaufman - and quite a few of my projects have been made with their prints. The fabric is very high-quality (and pricey... like $20-$26 per meter!), and the designs are just awesome.

I made some placemats last year with left-over charm squares.  It was something of an experimental project, but in the months since I did that, those placemats have become my favorites.  I thought this gum leaf fabric would make a very nice placemat - with the golds, greens and little hints of turquoise.

The fabric is a one-way design, and I want the quilting to be very simple, just a series of wavy lines running in the same direction as the gum leaves. Simple idea and very easy to do.

I wanted several placemats (4 for me and a half-dozen to give as gifts or to sell), so I bought 1.5 meters of fabric, and cut off the side so that instead of 44", I had 30 inches (which will give me 2 placemats 15" wide).  Then I mounted the fabric with backing and batting on the longarm:

 I quilted with simple wavy lines going from end to end, using dark brown thread:

 Then, after quilting, cut the large panel into sections, giving me ten placemats sized 12" x 15":

Here's a photo of the back showing the stitching.  The lines are uneven and wavy, giving an organic kind of feel to the mat:

And the result?  Here you go:

Spectacular!