My sewing classes have finished for the semester.  As always, we had a fabulous time and made some amazing projects.  Staying focused on teaching usually results in my forgetting to take photographs.  I was able to snag a few photographs, but some projects snuck out before I could snap them.

A favorite project was making patchwork heart lavender sachets for Mother’s Day.  These were made by my youngest students, who were quite skilled at making pillows by this time.  As we learned, a sachet is a lot like a pillow, but you need to put a teaspoon or so of lavender seeds in with the filling.  I have to admit that the room smelled LOVELY!  I don’t have a tutorial or a pattern, but it’s very straightforward.  I love that the lavender was still from the batch that I got last summer while visiting a farm in Cape Cod.  A little goes a long way and just a quick squeeze of the heart sachet will release more of the scent.

I have had this love ribbon forever and finally found a perfect use for it.  Can you smell the lavender inside our sachets?

This student is in her 2nd year of sewing with me and is more than capable of such tiny sewing.  She was determined to give her project an added challenge with all the tiny piecing.  Her hard work truly paid off and she presented her Mom with something handmade and lovely.

Can you tell that our students prefer pink when giving gifts to their moms?  We just couldn’t stop smelling the lavender!

Our final project in the older class was to make these Fabric Storage Baskets.  It was a more complicated project than we’ve done before, but having reached the end of the semester, I knew they had the skills needed for this challenge.  There are many tutorials for fabric baskets and I particularly like this one, although we didn’t do the patchwork portion.  Our baskets were made in two sizes so that they would nest together.

I purchased some home decorating fabric to make the bags sturdier, but many of the kids preferred the normal quilting cotton that we typically use.  It wasn’t that huge a problem since we used iron-on interfacing to make the baskets stiff to better hold their shape.  My favorites were the choices of lining that two students chose.  The french fry fabric makes me smile, as does the extra-bold text print that almost screams out!

Ignore all the threads showing.  Next to using the seam ripper, cutting off loose threads is a much-detested task in class.  The handles on this smaller basket ended up on the wrong side somehow.

I just love the fabrics that she chose and especially the lining with the bold print.  There was a distinct animal theme running through this project and she did a great job!

Love this matched set.

Here’s how the baskets nest.

Here’s another animal theme and the always-amusing french fry fabric.

The baskets are sturdier than they look but you do need to prop them up a bit after sewing.  The class finished just in the nick of time, but I wasn’t able to get them to reshape their bags for photographing.  These baskets were a first for me, which is always fun.  The class enjoyed the challenge and took something home that they can keep as a reminder of all the hard work.

Last post I wrote about my scrappy rainbow quilt but also about a giveaway.  Well, times up now, and I’ve contacted the winner.  I will announce her name as soon as I hear back from her.

GIVEAWAY WINNER IS JAYNE of http://twiggyandopal.blogspot.com/.  Congrats Jayne and it’s hopefully going into the mail today.  Thank you to everyone who participated.  I will gladly do another giveaway the next chance that I get.  

Thanks so much for all the comments last week.  My blog received the most hits ever thanks to all of you!!