I di them at the weekend, I did two for myself (ony ever need two placemats at my place!) as practice, am planning to do Christmas ones for my friends. I am pleased with how they came out.
I did them like a mini quilt really, 10"x13", and used old terry towels as batting, and binding like you would do on a normal quilt, except I don't hand sew (too impatient!), so I sew my binding to the front, fold it over and iron it in place with Wundaweb, then stitch in the ditch from the front, you know the drill. Good practice for doing binding though, I no longer need to use the tutorials on Youtube to remind me how to join the ends!
They are different fabric on the back, but I didn't take a pic of that as I don't like it, think it's ugly. Imagine fabric that looks like shredded overcooked cabbage! Lucky the front is pretty so the back will not be seen!