Friday Fun!

As many of you know now if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram I went out of town for a quick getaway. 

We had a little time before needing to get to the airport so we stopped in here: 

 It is in a strip mall but was a really nice shop! I saw the latest Primitive Quilts magazine and spotted the charity article on the quilts for Paradise, CA. Jennifer did a really great job. My backpack was completely jammed but would love to see the article again and show my niece, since it mentions our trip to Paradise. I still think of many of the people we met and wonder how they are doing.

Because I do a lot of machine applique, my favorite thread for that is DMC and it is getting harder and harder to find. These were on the sale rack so I grabbed a couple in colors I knew I could use. The fabric are random finds for my stash. 

I did get inspired for a new small quilt and even have the name chosen- 50 Shades of Brown! You'll have to wait and see. I think I need to get back into my sewing room!

I won this on Jan Patek's blog! I happened to drop by and she was doing a giveaway. The envelope came while I was gone. In the past I have used triangles on a roll- I'm not sure what makes this brand any different, but they are great for accuracy and if you need to make a lot of the same 2 fabrics. 

If you are only interested in quilts you do not have to read any further. 

A friend and I share the same birthday and she asked if I wanted to go hiking at a couple of National Parks to celebrate.  

We met up in Las Vegas and drove to:

The elevation made hiking a bit challenging. 

Bryce Canyon in Utah! On arrival we did scenic stops from the top in anticipation of hiking to the bottom the next morning! I was so giddy!

 We got on the trail about 7:30AM

It was mind blowing, actually! So utterly beautiful!!

A few hours later we were on our way to:

Zion national park! 

 Our first stop was to see "secret" petroglyphs.  

The next morning we headed here on the first shuttle.

If you want to read more about it, you can HERE. 

Michelle was going up, but was going to wait for me at Scouts Landing, about 3/4

mile from the "end". 

Up, up, up with sheer drop offs. 

 I didn't go to the top. Here was a part of the trail I felt comfortable enough to take a photo.  Not as much fun to do this by yourself. It was still pretty exciting.
We hiked just about every trail in the park that was open. We were exhausted that evening!! We had about 38,000 steps on our fitbit!

I was enamored with the variety of cacti we saw!!

This little acrobat was eating leaves. Cracked me up!!

It was a whirlwind trip- left early Saturday morning and returned Tuesday evening. Definitely a memorable birthday!!

Most of the little quilts swapped are on the Linky Party HERE- wow! You all rose to the challenge!!

Check them out! There are 3 pages, so be sure to scroll through.

I hope you all made sure to say thank you to the person who sent your quilt. 

That is the least we can do! 

Have a terrific weekend!!