Not the best...

This is another idea I put together for a different kind of placemat and table runner. I can not say that I am happy with the finished results for several reasons.
I started by cutting a length of fabric, estimating the size I needed and randomly embroidering the leaves. I didn't fuse interfacing on the back of the cotton, like I usually do. So the leaves were dense enough that they caused the fabric to pucker and wrinkle a bit around the embroidery. That was mistake #1 - should have backed with fusable interfacing. I use so sheer; a lightweight fusible interfacing that adds just a little body and stability when stitching dense designs on a lighter weight fabric.

I did stitch a blanket stitch in a 4" square around the leaf, which looks nice. Except, when I was ready to trim the solid fabric down to the size I needed for the mitered borders I had cut, it was a really tight fit. The blanket stitch comes too close to the seam, in my opinion. So therefore, mistake #2 - should have planned where to place the embroidery ahead of time.

The mitered corners on the border went together beautifully as well as attaching the borders to the solid panel. I layered the backing, top and batting, stitched around all four sides, leaving a small area open to turn the fabric through. Well, somehow, I ended up with the backing being larger than the top and we all know what happens. The backing peeks out to toward the front. I needed to cut the backing 1/8 - 1/4 inch smaller so the top would just barely roll to the back. Mistake #3 - should have cut the backing smaller.

From a distance the table runner is not so bad, but not the level of perfection I normally stitch. The placemat turned out sooo much better! The blanket stitch and leaves are placed correctly with no backing peeking through to the front. I quilted both the runner and placemat by stitching in the ditch around the border and around the blanket stitch design. That worked very well!