birthday place mats

This year, for my parents' birthdays (they are only 8 days apart), I wanted to send them not just a store bought present, but also something hand made that they could use on a regular basis. Also, it had to be something not too time consuming as I waited until the last minute to work on it.

Here' s what I came up with - personalized birthday place mats.

I used this fun "notebook" fabric for the middle and framed it with different green fabrics from my stash. I then had my kids draw and write messages using fabric markers.

I think they turned out great and my kids had a lot of fun working on these place mats. It was like making a big birthday card, just on fabric.

Once all the writing and drawing was done, I made a quilt sandwich using warm and white batting and quilted the place mats with straight lines about 1/2" apart.

I bound both of them using the same gray fabric and ta-da!!! they were finished in no time at all. The best thing, though, is that my parents loved getting them in the mail.

I'm curious to know. Do you make presents for your family? Do you have a certain go to present you like to make?