Regarding the batting, I've made a few table runners. I'm no expert by any means. But I put a piece of leftover poly fabric as the batting. A thick poly, maybe it's called double knit? I also did not want them to be too puffy. I found the poly gave me just enough thickness so a meander quilt looked like quilting.

Just my 2 cents.

that's beautiful - and a sweet gift for meals on wheels!

Maniac Quilter love your placemat. Our church just finished making placemats for our local Meals on Wheels. They had a ton of 7 inch squares-a lot not quite square. I went to our local glass shop and had them cut me an acrylic 12 x 18 shape. Used that to cut the backing and front, no batting, just sewn tog with a 5 inch opening to turn. Some I made using strips like yours and some I used orphan blocks and 3 inch strips for the sides. The reason we did not use lining, we made 580 of them so we had some time and money constraints.

Whenever I've made the four sided ones, I never use a batting.