Our son’s birthday was yesterday.

And since he’s the child of DIY parents, that always means there’s something handmade among his gifts.

A couple of months back, I heard his fiancé say that they could use some new placemats.

Now if you’re a beginning quilter, placemats are the very best place to start learning because they are, essentially, very small quilts.

These got started when I was inspired by a pattern in my guild’s newsletter called “Cheaper by the Dozen,” a scrappy quilt made from sets of six rectangles measuring 6 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches.

I thought “Cheaper by the Dozen” was perfect for making Parkinson’s quilts so I took nearly all my fat quarters and largish scraps, cut them all to size, and now I have precuts to make easy tops any time I want.

I was laying out a single block (which measures 12 1/2 inches square unfinished) when I thought it would be fun to cut the two ends off and reverse them to make something a bit more interesting for a placemat.

So I did and liked the effect. But I obviously needed to add something more to make them long enough horizontally and that’s when I remembered that I had this stack of back pockets from old blue jeans just sitting around waiting their turn to be part of something.

Presto–placemats like no others.

The pockets are perfect for the inserting of napkins and silverware. Roll them up and take them on a picnic.

I even got to use up some of my 2 1/2 inch binding strips. I just love scrappy projects like that.