Ort Containers and a Giveaway!

I see another month has gone by with no posts.  Boy does time fly when you get a few years under your belt! I'd be interested to know why that is.  The cause of my absence this time is completely of my own making. I bit off way more than I could chew with a project for retreat.  Fall is our no frills retreat but I generally come up with something for the ladies to use as an ort container.  Last year if you remember it was the coffins.

 This year I made my own pumpkin patch! (click to enlarge)

 A few months back I saw a cute pumpkin pin cushion on Pintrest and I thought to myself, self, that would make an adorable ort box for retreat.  And wouldn't you know it but my own self said ya know, it certainly would be a great ort box.  So I set about gathering some supplies to see if I could make one.  I'm going to let you in on a little secret here...I am not particularly good at sewing.  This project required a bit of sewing, in the round no less so I wasn't exactly sure I would be able to pull it off.  I didn't have any directions to follow so I just had to wing it.  And when I was done I had a passable copy of the original.  Meet Hamish, my very own pumpkin dude.

   Now a smart person would have written down exactly  what she had done as far as how large I cut my pieces of fabric.  But,  and here's another little secret for you...no one has ever accused me of being smart.  So when a couple of weeks went by before I was able to gather enough supplies to make these cuties en masse, I couldn't remember what I had done the first time.  So back to the drawing board I went.  I think I made 6 of these before I got the size correct.  Note to self:  one should write down important information for later use because as one gets a few years under ones belt one tends to forget said important information.  Here's another little tidbit for you.  Making one or 2 of these was fun.  Making 46...not so much.  Big time sucker!  Especially when I had 15 customer finishes to do and one ornament to stitch and finish for our exchange at retreat.  It wasn't that hard it just took a lot of time due to the many steps involved but in the end I did finish the little dears with 3 days to spare and I stitched and finished my ornament and got 12 of the 15 customer finishes finished.  All in all I think I did okay, however don't ask me about my house and the state it's in because it's not good.  But I'm slowly working on getting it back into shape. Thanksgiving is going to be here before I know it and I believe I was elected to have everyone here again so getting the house clean is my next big job.

I made a few extra pumpkins to sell so I could recoup the money that was spent but I also set one aside for a giveaway.  I haven't had a giveaway in forever and I thought this might be just the ticket.   Here is the pumpkin dude up for grabs.

He could be yours if you follow a few simple rules:

1.  you must be a follower of my blog.
2.  you must leave a comment on this post only and you must include your email address or your blog address so I can reach you.  
3.  if you share the giveaway on your blog I will put your name in twice if you let me know in your post.

Everyone is eligible as long as you are a follower including those not in the States.  I will draw the winner on Sunday Morning the 13th of October.  You will have 24 hours to respond to the email i will send after which I will choose a new winner.

I think I will call this post done and leave the retreat report for next time.  Thanks for all the wonderful comments on my Fair results.  I appreciate them.  Thanks also for hanging in there between posts.

Take care till next time!

Julie