I LOVE_LOVE_LOVE the four-sided placemats. Imagine two 2-sided placemats that are connected at the center - without a north-south center seam! If you lay the placemat flat, then fold back the right "page" like a book, the second placemat appears, which you fully open to that "page" for a completely different placemat. Then fold back that "page" as you did before for the third placemat to appear, and so on. Pictures of this just aren't able to do this any real justice, but I've provided some weblinks below.
One woman in my class did a four-sided placemat for each of her grandkids with fabrics that were all about them. A vegetarian attendee did several sets of four with fruits and veggie fabrics to auction off to raise funds for a charity cause, another made a four seasons placemat set and ... well, you get the idea. I transferred artwork my grandkids made onto photo transfer fabric, and used their original fabric for their individual placemats; I sewed a loop on the left side of each for their napkin, since they're learning how to set the table and refine their table manners (they are pre-school age). I have also made several individual four-sided placemats to give as door prizes for seniors group's holiday dinner to use as centerpiece-type placemats, since so many seniors live by themselves. A single four-sided placemat would work also for a married young adult or college student, too.
This weblink has some great photos of what I am talking about
:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-59266-1.htm
Here's a good weblink for an idea of the instructions:
http://dunnvillequiltguild.com/uploads/2010_January.pdf for an idea of the instructions. (see page 4 of the link's newsletter)
Here's the link to the Nancy's Notions website, which is selling the hard vinyl template for $10.
http://www.nancysnotions.com/product...cemat+tool.do. I used a paper template for the class I took, but making more than one, well, let's just say it's best to pay for the "hard" template to make sure they all have the same shape.
Figure one yard for one four-sided placemat (fat quarters are perfect), so a set of four 4-sided placemats would take four yards total; I used the thinnest fusible batting for just one of the placemats to make it "not-fat," but that's a personal choice.
If you try this and run into problems, just let me know!