Got a plaster?

My poor neglected blog...  what can I say?  My man came home!  I've got cooking and stuff to do, so not so much awake time for the cupboard...  I've been missing it though.  I've decided to make more of an effort, try and spend less time on-line and a bit more sewing!   I did have my wonderful weekend away in Edinburgh, and I got my trip to the zoo.  The chimps were amazing, and the penguins were nesting and adorable.

As my man said "females of many species just want to be given a rock of some kind"...

I have got a little done in the sewing cupboard.  Remember the red, white and blue block I messed up by dropping the rotary cutter on it?  Its had some stitches and has made a reasonable recovery.

I've finally made a start on my part of the swap bargain for Magpie Mimi, as today I got to play with this bundle of lovelies

One of my favourite lines, Robert Kaufman Metro Living.  I've got the colours cut, just got a mountain of white to chop up now.  And, I've got my pre-cut (thanks Trudi!) squares ready and waiting to be made into the first block for the Brit Bee..

And believe it or not I've made a fair bit of progress with my hand stitching for the single girl quilt this past week too.  I'll save the proper pics for when its finally finished, but here's a wee sneaky peak just to prove I have actually been working on it (honest I have).

In other news, the Brit Quilts Swap has finally started!  There was a great deal of excitement as forty or so of us were all on-line on Sunday night - I cant remember the last time I checked my email so obsessively - waiting to receive news of who we are to stalk make a mini quilt for.  Of course typically enough I am now freaking out as my partner seems to be much better at quilting than I am...
As I'm not much of an artist I do find coming up with something original really difficult.  I've seen something on-line that I'd like to try and do as a mini quilt, but I don't fully understand the whole "copyright" issues, so I've emailed the creator to ask their permission.  Is this the right thing to do, or am I just potentially delaying doing anything for some time?  I don't know.  Fingers crossed I'll get a reply soon so that I can get on with things.
Meantime I'll continue popping in to Brit Quilts Swap on flickr to nosey at what others are doing, admiring and envying all the really cool ideas that have been posted so far...and there have been many, believe me (and yes, I've already spotted one in particular I really hope is mine!)