I'm Finally Back.....and ready to FIRE up the sewing machine!

It's so good to be back home from AK and to see my Babies (first my Husband and Daughter, then my sewing machines!!!) My free time was so slim while I  was away. I've desperately missed reading all of your blogs and following your progress. I've got some catching up to do. And I've also got a lot of blog posting to do of my own.

I'm so happy that I made my flannel pants. From the picture you can tell that I really needed them. When I ran outside to take this picture it was about -10F, that's right -10F. Excuse the expression on my face but my friend had a problem taken the pic and the cold was starting get to me-----Boy was it COLD!!!! But my pants, which are McCall's 5992 kept me toasty at night (indoors of course--LOL). I made 3 pairs using 3 types of fabric and here I am modeling the one with the moon and stars on it! Since I have several more trips back to AK, I'll be sure to bring them along each time.  I chose not to do a PR review of this pattern since flannel pants are pretty easy, but I have to admit the pattern wasn't drafted well (some notches didn't match up) but I could work through it considering how straight forward sewing sleep pants are.

(Here's a closer shot)

Due to this trip I lost about a week or two of serious sewing time and I'm anxious to get back to the grind. Thus in a couple of days I'll be posting my new 10,000 Hour Sewing Challenge goals for May & June and reviewing what I accomplished for March and part of April. But before I do that I just realized that next Sunday is Mother's day (I can't believe it) and I have to get moving on making my Mother's day dress. So I've already pulled my fabric and now I'm stuck between deciding on 2 patterns. Here's my fabric and potential patterns....

The fabric is a beautiful silk charmeuse with gorgeous hues of mauve, red, tan, and gold in the shapes of palm fronds on a white background. This fabric is heavenly. It's extremely beautiful and I was hoping to capture that beauty in the perfect pattern.  Hopefully by tomorrow I'll finally decide on which pattern to use! I could really use your input. Which pattern do you think is best?

Headed North, or as North as One can go in the US.........

I have a few short hours before I'm on a plane and headed to Barrow, Alaska for field research. I did indeed finish my flannel pants in time for the trip so I'm delighted they'll be accompanying me on the trip and will be keeping me really warm at night (I'll post pics later). I've hated not being able to blog, review, and read you Guy's blogs for the past week, but I'm looking forward to catching up while I'm away (in between working that is). You better believe that although I won't be able to sew, I'll use my extra time to catch up on watching a few sewing DVD's  and read through some articles on my Best of Threads DVD's vol 1&2. I hope to  post in a couple of days when I get settled. Until then please sew a few stitches for me..........