Road Trip Quilt Along Day 48, Hoover Dam and Las Vegas - Card Trick block

 How could I keep from choosing the Card Trick block to represent our night in Las Vegas?

This block is definitely tricky to sew, not because the units are hard, but because you have to get the placement of each fabric in the right order!

Off we go toward Las Vegas - or so we thought!

We drove about half an hour in the wrong direction!  I guess it has to happen eventually on every road trip!  We turned around and headed northwest toward our destination!  It was a beautiful drive!

The scenery was stunning!

Beautfiul views as you approach Hoover Dam.

And the bridge is a sight for sure!

We found a parking spot and went out to explore!

The dam was an amazing sight!

And the view from the dam was stunning!

We continued to Pahrump, to see one of Perry's brothers and visit the cemetery where their parents were buried.  It was sad, but good to see their stone.  I think it was good for both of us to be here.

Then back to Vegas to spend the night.  The sun was just starting to set as we came through town.  

We are not really a fan of bright lights and city living, but it was fun to drive by the strip and see the hotels!

We stayed in the Best Western, not fancy, but easy to get in and out of for traveling.

It was a quick visit, but we were glad we spent the day to do these things.

Time for dinner and a good night's rest before we head to California!

I'm very pleased with my points on the 3 inch block!

The six inch version came out well, too!  It helps if you press the seam toward the background on the corner triangles.

And the nine inch block.  This block is great for showcasing pretty fabrics!

Road Trip Quilt Along Day 47, Grand Canyon - Arizona Block

 The Arizona block is another one with a lot of small pieces!  It's really not that hard though, just a lot of sewing, even in this smaller block!

You'll be making lots of half square triangles for sure!

It didn't look like a very nice way as we drove to the Grand Canyon.  We were hoping that the skies would clear up by the time we arrived.

It was nice to drive through trees!  We got to the park, and tried to figure out where to park, then where to go to see the Canyon!  This is a huge place, with shuttles, and was the most crowded place we went to on the whole trip!

It was pretty foggy, but we did get some nice views here and there.

When the fog lifted, you could see how vast it is!

The beauty of it is really unique!

The colors are beautiful, too!

So amazing!

Keep a good hold on your phone!

We hike the rim for a bit.

But eventually the fog descended again, and we decided to move on. 

The sun decided to come out as we drove toward Kingman.

We were happy to see the sun again!

Tomorrow we would head to Nevada, and more familiar territory!  

The tiny three inch version!

The six inch block.

The nine inch block!  Love that I could fussy cut the middle square!  I promise, next week's blocks won't have as many pieces!

Road Trip Quilt Along Day 46, Painted Desert and Petrified Forest - West Wind Block

 It's nice to have my blocks be caught up with the travel!  Today's block is West Wind.  

This block is much easier - one big triangle and 5 small ones!

Today's drive would take us to Flagstaff, AZ with a stop at the Petrified Forest National Park, a place I have wanted to visit for many years!  

We saw more pretty scenery on our way to the park.  If we didn't have an agenda, I might have been tempted to stop at some of the interesting roadside stores!

If we hadn't seen Mammoth caves and Carlsbad Caverns we might have tried the Bigfoot Cave tour!  After a bit we crossed border into Arizona!  Then onwards to the Petrified Forest.

This was our first stop at the park, and the spot I chose to photograph my quilt for last year's Island Batik September challenge,  It was such a beautiful spot!

I took a lot of pictures, all of them gorgeous!

There was a cute lodge/gift shop where we stopped and had an ice cream cone!  It was hot and sunny at this point in our visit!

We followed the road and stopped at many viewpoints, seeing lots of different rock formations, petroglyphs, and petrified wood!

It was a challenge to see the petroglyphs, but once you see one, you start seeing more!

The sun disappeared and we could see rain in the distance.  We weren't sure if it was going to hit us or not!

We figured that we'd keep sightseeing as long as we could!

So many beautiful views!

We got out for a short hike, but it started raining on us!  

We were a little concerned, so tried to walk a bit faster!  I got nervous when the lightning started and was very happy to get back to our truck!  We ended up skipping the last few viewpoints and got on the road to Flagstaff.

There were some flash flood warnings as we drove to Flagstaff, but we weren't affected as we finished our drive, and by the time we got to Flagstaff it was sunny and nice.

Love this blue in the 3 inch block!

Here is the six inch version.

And the nine inch block.  If you are running short of background and can't cut the large triangle, you can sew this as a nine patch grid, and use a 3 1/2 inch square of background and medium light fabric and cut an additional 4 inch square of each to make 2 more half square triangles.