And the winner is …..

Thank you very much to everyone who entered my second birthday giveaway to win a year’s subscription to the Bustle & Sew Magazine.  I am pleased to announce that, chosen by random number, the winner is comment number 163.  And if I have counted correctly, that is Nancye Aitken.  Well done Nancye and once again, “Thank you” to everyone else for entering.  Thank you also once again for all your lovely comments about my patterns.  

Reading through your comments, I was interested to see that softies are particularly well-liked and that hedgehogs and mice are definite leaders in the popularity stakes, together with Charlie the Patchwork Elephant who I think has been my most popular softie ever!  I’ve made other elephants to sell, but Charlie still lives in my workroom today, presiding over a collection of smaller softies – Aviator and Cotton Spool Mice of course, Little Geese and Hodge and Podge the hedgehog siblings.

I have been wondering for a while if it would be a nice idea to collect my softie patterns together – with a few new ones too – into a book and I now think that  I will … it would be lovely to have them all in one place, and I could add lots of extra notes on cutting, stuffing and stitching – not to mention positioning eyes, ears and tails!  Mentioning eyes, ears and tails ……

Rosie snapped this fantastic picture of Daisy in full-on “attack” mode at the beach.  Isn’t it wonderful!?!?  She has definitely settled in now and is a bundle of energetic happiness – delighting in chasing, wrestling and annoying her devoted big brother in as many ways as she can dream up!  Luckily, like the rest of the family, he has fallen for her charms and spends many happy hours playing silly dog games with her until they both collapse into exhausted furry heaps!  But I will be very glad when the rain stops and the garden dries out so I can send them outside to play.