Tu-Na Travels: Day Three in Paris and Prepping Those Furry Pieces

My husband announced this morning that he had been dreaming of puppies during the night. I am not sure if he is getting all wrapped up in my poodle excitement this month or if he is concerned after hearing my niece’s husband’s suggestion for those couples who are wanting to become parents but it’s taking a bit longer than they’d like—”go buy a couple of puppies.” Considering the options and the fact that the latter would indeed be quite a miracle, I’ll still go with the former thought.

A trip to Paris would not be complete without a visit to the Louvre.

We spent our entire third day in Paris there and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the major and minor artworks on display. But the main reason I wanted to go was to get up-close and personal with Mona; the one and only Mona Lisa that is.

So what if we are a bit blurry. We were excited to see her and were being bumped and jostled around by a couple of hundred people behind us who were anxiously awaiting their turn to be in front. This was as close as we were allowed to get. Look at all the glass protecting her. Mona, you make ME smile.

I’ve dreamt of seeing the original painting since my first college Art History class. I wanted to examine that painting and see if I could end the mystery of what was making her smile. I was impressed with seeing pictures of it and so very impressed after being there and seeing it in person.

Yes, we were waiting our turn to get closer. You can see her on the right waiting patiently for me.

After elbowing our way to the front of the line to see the painting, which is really much smaller than I thought it would be, I convinced my husband that we should get back into line so we could see her again. And we did.

This is the best pic we have of a close-up. It could be because of the thick glass in front of her (notice all the reflections of the people looking at her) or the fact that we are still at least 10 feet back although we are at the front of the line. Or maybe it’s just one of those “you’ve got to be there” moments.

Afterwards, we stopped at the café in this massive museum and enjoyed a real French quiche.

My head is hiding a very interesting French lady, You can catch just a glimpse of her by my right cheek. But the white-haired French gentleman (you can see him just above my coffee cup) was also interesting to watch and worthy of yet another story–some other time.

But the most interesting aspect of lunch was watching the lady sitting at the table across the aisle from us. I loved her colorful attire, the radiance surrounding her face, and her innocent smile. It’s very much like Mona’s. It makes me wonder what she is reading.

What I Learned Today..Vendredi April 18, 2014

Dreams can come true! I’ve always wanted to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and I did…twice, elbowing hundreds of people for the front row. I had to look quick as my stance in the front only lasted a minute as we were shepherded away so those behind could take our place.
How to enjoy a delicious quiche: relax with some coffee and watch the people in the cute café in the Louvre.
How to get out of the Louvre’s lower level when all the exits appeared locked while trying to find our way to the metro at 9:30pm. Someone should tell them their signs aren’t pointing in the right direction. I’m not sure what happened to the other group of people in the elevator that I sent to another floor.
I had to go all the way to Paris to eat the best Italian food ever! It was only 3 Paris-size blocks from our apartment. I had asparagus ravioli, my husband had meatballs and spaghetti, and we shared Tiramisu for dessert.
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I’m missing Evelyn’s middle button on her coffee maker. It makes a perfect cup of coffee. (Evelyn is the mother of our exchange student who we visited and stayed with during our stay in Germany right before going to Paris.)

Poodle Block Tips:

Previous Posts (just in case you need to catch up to figure out what we are doing)

Tu-Na Quilts: All Aboard. Fasten Your Seatbelts. We’re Taking Off for… You will find the pattern link in this post.

Tu-Na Travels: Day One in Paris which includes Part un (1): Pattern and Fabric Selection

Tu-Na Travels: Day Two in Paris and Poodle Block Cutting Tips

Now onto Part trois (3): Prepping the Furry Accent Pieces (Foot poofs, Tail, and Ear)

Sally refers to these pieces as “dark” in her tutorial found on her The Objects of Design blog but I will refer to them as the furry accent pieces to thoroughly confuse you. So grab the tail, two foot poofs, and the ear and let’s get started.

You will also need 12 of the 1.25″ background-colored squares and 4 of the 1.25″ body-colored squares from your extra pile. See, I said we’d be using them soon enough.

Lay those 1.25″ background-colored squares right sides together on each of the 4 corners of both foot poofs, top two corners and lower left corner of the tail, and top left corner of the ear as pictured above. Lay 1.25″ body-colored squares on the other three corners of the ear.

Let’s flip those corners. Mark all these 1.25″ corner squares on all these furry accent pieces diagonally using your favorite method. See pictures below.

I lightly draw a line with a mechanical pencil on light colored fabrics or a white chalk pencil on dark colored fabrics. Some quilters fold these corner squares in half diagonally and press a sewing line but these pieces are quite small and I really don’t like to burn my fingers. Other quilters have marks, guides, or tape on their machine bed to guide them to sew a straight line. I’ve even seen an incredible laser light set-up to show a straight seam line to follow. Use what method works for you.

I’ve highlighted the sewing line as my chalk mark did not show up very well.

Do the same for both foot poofs.

Sew each of these diagonal lines. I sew just slightly to the right of the line towards the corner peak to give me that extra bit of fabric so my blocks don’t get too small. I love using an open toe foot so I can see.

Now trim all the seams to 1/4″.

Press seams toward the dark side—I still chuckle when I say that. This may have to be adjusted later when sewing the block together but for now press toward the dark.

After trimming all the seams and pressing, I like to square up the blocks.

The tail and foot poofs should be squared to 2.75″ and the ear to 2.75″ x 4.25″.

Now stand back and admire your hard work. See that didn’t take so long.

Coming soon: Part quatre (4) Prepping the Poodle Body Parts—and a cute little body it is.

What I Learned Today:

Making step by step directions is harder and more time consuming than it looks.
It’s very easy to forget to take a picture.
It’s very easy to take blurry pictures when taking close-ups.
I admire all those quilt bloggers who write tutorials regularly.
This is good practice for me.

Question: You’ve read about my interesting Parisian lunch. I’d like to hear about a fun luncheon that you’ve had. Where were you? Who was with you? What did you eat? What did you see?

Au Revoir

Karen