Tu-Na Travels: Day Five in Paris and Prepping the Background Pieces

Today was the day of selfies. As I was looking at our vacation photos, I discovered more selfies taken this day than all the other days in Paris combined. Probably because we had to stand in line at the Palace of Versailles and the lines moved slowly.

The lines were long and we had to wait almost three hours to enter. Once inside the gate, we had to wait again to enter the Palace and once we were finished looking inside, we had to wait in yet another line outside to enter the palace grounds.

Here we are with King Louis XIV

and Marie Antoinette.

I could show you about 50 more of us, but since this is a quilting blog, I want to keep it at least a little bit about quilting. I wonder if you’d like to make a quilt for this bed?

Or maybe this one pictured below? The sign said “Queen’s Room.” So does that mean the one above is the King’s room? I don’t remember.

This is just a very small part of the grounds which included many ponds and fountains.

Here’s one of them.

After a long train ride back to our apartment, we dined on this light supper which included some fruit, a sandwich, some good and expensive cheese, paprika Pringles and, of course, some French wine.

What I learned today….dimanche, April 20, 2014

1. Do not go to the Palace of Versailles on an Easter Sunday. About a million other people decided to do the same. Lines were long and moved very slowly.
2. We did a lot of standing today: standing still, standing in line, standing around, standing and smiling—we never knew whose photograph we might end up on.
3. We did not see it all (Palace and grounds). We will have to come back.
4. French Kings sure knew how to live in luxury. The Palace and grounds were very beautiful.

Poodle Block Tips:

Part cinq (5): Prepping the Background Pieces

We will work with only five pieces for this part. But we are getting one step closer to being done. Aren’t you so excited? Don’t you just love the way I’m prolonging this block? Especially, if you are sewing along. No, really, I thought that by breaking it into manageable steps, it is doable for even the beginner sewer (or is it sewist?).

Sally refers to these pieces as “white” in her right facing poodle tutorial on The Objects of Design blog. Adding to the confusion for you, I will refer to them as background (just because it is less confusing for me and well, maybe for you, too).

Find the Above Back and Under Belly background pieces and two 1.25″ square body extra pieces plus one 2.75″ square body piece. (Note: This is one of the corrections from Sally’s tutorial as she asks for a 2″ piece but you will need to use the 2.75″.)

Now place one 1.25″ body square on the bottom left corner of the Above Back piece as pictured below.

 

Place a 1.25″ body square on the top right corner and a 2.75″ body square on the left side of the Under Belly piece as pictured below. Now flip those corners. (Draw a diagonal line, sew, trim seam to 1/4″ and press.) Refer to Part 3-Prepping the Furry Accents for a step by step explanation of how to do this if needed. The next four pictures will show you how to make a bonus block with half-square triangles.

I draw a line diagonally from corner to corner, and because I also don’t want to waste fabric, I draw another line 1/2″ towards the outside corner on these bigger pieces. I sew close to these lines, not on them but a needles width to the right of the line towards the corner. (This picture has been edited to show the correct corner to flip on that large square).

 

Then I cut between the seams (each will have a 1/4″ seam allowance).

 

 

After pressing the seams, I square my bonus block. This one will square to 2″. I love doing this.

And there’s my bonus block for another project! Did you make one too?

You may ask, “Why didn’t you do that on all the other corners we flipped?” Since I am a visual learner and you may be to, I thought I’d show you what happens. There is a point when it just doesn’t pay. And those small squares would only give you a block that squares to 1/2″ unfinished. Now I don’t have any sewing projects needing that small of blocks because there would be nothing left after sewing it as it would all go into the seam allowance.

There’s that little half -inch square. Cute but worthless.

After pressing all your seams, square the Above Back piece to 3.5″ x 5″ and the Under Belly piece to 2.75″ x 6.5″. Now stand back and admire your hard work.

 

This picture has been edited to show the correct larger flipped corner. If your piece doesn’t look like this one with these corners flipped this way, you’ll be needing to recut the pieces and reflip those corners. It took me a bit to discover this mistake.

 

That’s it for part 5. Coming soon: Part six (6) Building the Frame Around our Pampered Pooch. It’s coming along nicely.

Here are the previous poodle posts just in case you need to catch up to figure out what is going on this month at Bee Inspired. We’ve all gone on vacation—don’t we wish—to Paris. Well, maybe at least in our minds and imaginations.

Tu-Na Quilts: All Aboard. Fasten Your Seatbelts. We’re Taking Off for… You will find the pattern link for the poodle block in this post as well as why I chose this block.

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 which includes Part deux (2): Cutting and Anatomy Labeling

Tu-Na Travels: Day Three in Paris and Prepping Those Furry Pieces which includes Part trois (3): Prepping the Furry Accent Pieces (Foot poofs, Tail, and Ear) 

Tu-Na Travels: Day Four in Paris and Prepping the Poodle Body Parts which includes Part quatre (4) Prepping the Poodle Body Parts.

Coming soon: Part six (6) Building the Frame Around our Pampered Pooch

What I Learned Today:

1. Pictures do not do justice to the beauty found in and around Paris.
2. Some things just have to be experienced.
3. Don’t waste my time making bonus half-square triangle blocks on every corner I flip. Only do the ones that would give me a respectable and useable finished piece.

Question: Have you visited a unique place where people live or lived? Where?

If you enjoyed this post and would like to read more about my journey or follow me, please visit my blog Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats. Thank you for visiting Bee Inspired.

Au Revoir

Karen, Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats