Placemats over and over again

On and off (a long bit off) I have been working on making place mats for our large dining room table which seats 14 people with a bit of good will;-)

By now I've made three different themes and not being entirely happy with any of them:

First round I decided to make two of each of seven different color schemes, but most of them looked quite sissy. Then I selected the one in the middle, cause I really loved the India colors. Got as far as binding the ones with the elephant in the middle, layered and quilted eight of them and then it struck me -upholstery is blue and curtains has dark purple olives printed. So dark red/yellow might not suit?

OK, blue place mats then....had some leftover blocks from my nieces USA bed spread and used them. With a disastrous result. I mean - just look at them!! Have you seen anything as boring in your entire life? Not only boring, they are plain ugly. Good thing I didn't get as far as sandwiching them before I was struck by that insight;-)

So here I am now, back at quilting the rest of the middle once, I have one to go. And then it hit me - these will not look good with the new china! And here is where some might think I'm a bit crazy or something in that vicinity.....but I finally decided on a light grey, dark grey and cream theme and ordered some yards of fabrics. Since it will take a week for them to get here, I have all the time in the world to come up with a design that I really truly like.

They are only place mats - right? And they will mostly be covered with plates and cutlery and glasses and napkins and.....Well at times I am a bit of a overachiever, that's for sure LOL.

Wolfie in Sweden where it's rey and a bit rainy, not the nicest weather to start clean up the garden in.