First charity project for 2017

Happy new year!  It's hard to believe that it's already the 9th of January - but I've already had at least a week's worth of experiences to prove it, so we'll just carry on.
Every year, our quilt guild provides place mats for the Meals On Wheels recipients in our county - one year it's for Valentine's Day, and the next year it's for their Christmas meals.  This year the place mats are for Valentine's Day - but they aren't hearts and roses!  Someone had the great idea to provide each member with a FQ - all the same print - and a paint chip, inspired by the print.
This is what is left of my FQ - and the paint chip (which reads more blue than the deep purples it shows IRL):

We could use whatever pattern we liked - which is what caused the first issue for me.  The fabric is quite dramatic, and I didn't want to make just any design, so I waited for inspiration to strike.  It didn't...  So, I checked out my Pinterest quilt boards - and I found an idea!  Shadowed blocks!  I've often seen quilts with the 3D look, and I want to make one sometime, but hesitated to commit to it.  I didn't have the pattern, and wasn't sure I really wanted to cut up pieces of fabric to "play" with, unless I was REALLY sure that I could figure it out.  But, if the blocks were only 3" square, I wouldn't be out too much in the fabric department if my plan went awry...  So, I pulled some darker purples from my stash, found some bits of a taupe-y Kona, and started cutting and piecing.  I framed my blocks in Kona Snow, and liked the look, so the challenge was a go!

Of course, Christmas and family birthdays and our new grandson "adjusted" my schedule somewhat, but I was able to deliver these 8 place mats to our meeting earlier tonight!

(I see that one of them is upside down...)  I have 2 pieces of the focus fabric in each place mat, and an assortment of purple fabrics in the ranges on the paint chip.  The place mats measure about 12" x 17" - hopefully they'll make someone a little happier on Feb. 14th!

Linking up with Quilting is more fun than housework, and She can quilt's Scraptastic Tuesday's post.