My friend George's birthday

Today was my dear friend George's birthday. We went to Ted's Montana Grill, where the lights were low and the wood paneling was dark and rich. Their sign and menu had a buffalo on it, and there was buffalo on the menu, along with other meat lovers delights. I, the vegetarian, did the best I could, since there were NO vegetarian meals on the menu. I was told that Ted Turner owns the chain.

But I digress. We were supposed to go to a late lunch between 3 and 4, and I waited until 10 am to start this piece. It was going to be a quiltlet, but turned into a real disaster.
I tried to do free motion on the sewing machine without reading the directions. When that didn't work, I decided to use puffy paint to "decorate" the cake I cut using my guillotine cutter (ask anyone who has ever been to my place and they will tell you I have NO sharp scissors). George's wife called me at 1 and said to be ready in 30 minutes. I still had to put the flaps on the quiltlet, but when I picked it up, I stuck my finger in wet paint. All might have been well if I had just left it, but when George's wife got to my house, I had to show her the paint was still wet, and messed it up beyond repair, as you can see in the top tier.

It was a good thing I had already gotten him a gift, or the day would have been ruined, at least on my part. Tomorrow I will make another one and learn from my mistakes. I will NOT try to rush it as I did today. In fact, I could write volumes about what I did wrong today, including getting the candles too skinny. I could also write volumes about what I learned, including the fact that the lovely fabric in the background does not tear crosswise (only lengthwise), unlike muslin, which tears in both directions.

Again I digress!! The really sad thing is, we ended up not going to dinner until around 7, so I would have had plenty of time to make another one, had I stayed home. One nice thing is, I can consider this one a practice piece and truly learn from my mistakes. Hopefully, the next one will look better because I won't have started it three hours before I needed it finished :>)