Lucky me !!! A runner up prize whoop...whoop....

http://bustleandsew.com/store/

If you havent visited Helen's wonderful site Bustle and Sew, please pop across and languish amongst her delightful patterns and handi work.
There are really wonderful patterns to buy, a few offered free and a  useful pdf which you can download too, explaining how to transfer patterns.
Helen has a Bustle and Sew eZine, featuring some of her patterns as well which looks really interesting.

The Bustle & Sew Magazine offers at least 3 free original Bustle & Sew patterns each month, plus vintage patterns, news and tutorials from other designers. It’s a great read and is delivered in pdf format so it’s easy for you to download and print too.

Helen had a draw and I was lucky enough to be a runner up and I have received a pattern for the most wonderful mouse Pilot!
I am totally smitten lol THANK YOU HELEN!

Helen's 'Brave Aviator Mice Softies'



Aren't they just wonderful!!
I have lifted this pic off Helen's website, so please pop in and see her Monty the Parrot softie and her Owl and the Pussy Cat softies too.
Then go find her also delightful, Stitching Bunny by Nakisha who is so very, very lovely too.

Now do I make this aviator mouse for my grandson.......
or for ME since I'm ex RAF aircrew myself!!

Though no, I didn't actually fly the aircraft.... I loaded it with freight and passengers, then flew with the airframe wherever it was going to.
(Sheer Hell - Fiji, Midway Island, Hong Kong etc..........sighhh, themS were the days....)
But I loved flying and had I had the ability would have loved to have piloted aircraft. Though not the VC10s which I worked on, think I'd have been more light aircraft material!!

I have always been fascinated by the women who flew in what was very much a mans world back in the early days. 
At school I knew about Hulls' own Amy Johnson and learnt about Amelia Earhart and felt they were ahead of their times and must have been strong willed women.
What great role models for women to follow.

These female pilots were called 'aviatrix' - women who were aviators.........what a bizarre word lol but I love it!

There was Karen Blixen too who was fascinating in her own right as a woman in the African colony and a writer. 
And Beryl Markham who was the first woman to fly from England to America in 1936.

Beryl flew and lived in Africa at the same time Karen did.
In fact Beryl also dated Denys Finch Hatton...he got about abit, that chap!
Her biography 'Straight on Till Morning' is well worth reading if you can find a copy..........she must have been one hell of a capeable woman.

And then there were, the as amazing women, who flew all manner of newly made WW2 aircraft  from aircraft factories, to the pilots who would then fly them on into war.
These women had to fly all manner of aircraft types at the drop of a hat and without them, the young pilots would not have had aircraft to fight in the skies with.

So...........yes....
I will make a male aviator mouse for my grandson ....
AND an aviatrix for me lolol
Watch this space..........I'm off to search thru my many felted woollies!